A Year in Georgia and Letters to Celestia
by CheddarandPretzelCombos
Summary: Princess Celestia wants Equestria to become a more advanced place. So she's sending her most loyal subjects-the Elements of Harmony-to the most advanced planet in the Galaxy-Earth. This is a story of the happenings of the Elements-in human form- through their adventures and letters.
1. Chapter 1

**A year in Georgia and Letters to Celestia**

**Chapter one**

Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, And Fluttershy stood in Canterlot Castle along with Spike and Princess Celestia herself. The mane six all had saddlebags, filled with a few treasured belongings.

"Princess, are you sure you want us to go? I mean, isn't a little risky sending your elements of harmony somewhere where they might not come back?" Twilight asked, dubious.

Celestia chuckled. "Do not worry, Twilight Sparkle, you'll come back. I've made sure it'll be perfectly safe."

"But for a whole year? Sweet Apple Acres sure will miss me!" Applejack said.

"Don't worry," Celestia said again. "I'll be sending somepony over to Sweet Apple Acres to do your work while you're gone. Now, is everypony ready? Celestia was answered by a few anxious nods and an "okay."

"Your essential objective is to learn as much as you can so you can make Equestria a more advanced place. Now remember, I want a letter daily, telling me what you've learned. There's seven of you, so I should get a letter from somepony else every day of the week."

Ooh! Dibs on Saturday!" Rainbow Dash held up a hoof.

Celestia smiled. "Mail from Miss Rainbow Dash every Saturday." She got serious again. "Remember your studies. I'll see you all in a year."

Twilight took this as her cue and her horn glowed.

A magical white sphere engulfed the six-and Spike-and there was a blinding flash of light. Then they were gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**A Year in Georgia and Letters to Celestia**

**chapter 2**

Rainbow Dash woke up to a face full of Applejack's hair. They were sprawled out on the grass, Rainbow must have landed on her when Twilight's spell stopped.

Rainbow groaned, still groggy. Wait. Twilight's spell! Had it worked? She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with a hoof.

No. Not with a hoof. She stared. It was a hand.

Rainbow Dash was in human form. She looked down at Applejack. Her friend had a human face, human arms, legs, everything! She was wearing a white tank under a plaid shirt tired into a knot at the chest. She had worn skinny jeans tucked into a pair of cowboy boots. She still had her long blonde hair pulled into a sloppy ponytail and freckles. Clearly Applejack.

Rainbow looked around at the rest of her friends, still unconscious. Rarity wore a ruffly white knee-length skirt and a purple tank with sequins with dainty black heels. She, too, still had her signature purple hair.

Twilight wore a black tank under a three-quarter-sleeve dark purple jacket; cropped at the ribcage. She had a short purple skirt with sideways folds. To top it off, she had purple and black plaid knee-highs and black slip-ons.

Pinkie was wearing a hot pink tutu with balloons on it and a matching halter top. She wore pink Sperry's with sequins.

Fluttershy had a brown knee length skirt with a yellow jacket. She wore sandals that had ribbons coming up and tying into a bow on her shins.

Uh-oh. Almost all them had skirts on. _Please tell me Celestia didn't put me in a- _she sighed in relief when she looked down. No skirt. She had on denim short-shorts and a cyan shirt that had one sleeve sliding down her shoulder. On the front of the shirt was a cloud with a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt. She had rainbow thigh-highs and Heelys.

"Guys, guys! Wake up! Twi, your spell worked!"

While her friends moaned and passed back out, Rainbow shrugged off her saddlebag, which had morphed itself into a hiking backpack, and unzipped it.

She found Tank, her pet tortoise she'd sneaked into her saddlebag. Tank looked different, too. He was smaller and more dull then he was in Equestria.

"Hey, buddy. Enjoy the ride?" She put Tank right on Rarity's stomach, so she'll freak out when she wakes up.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me I forgot it!" Rainbow cursed aloud, rummaging through her backpack. "Wait, Pinkie put it in her bag!" She said, remembering. She stepped over Fluttershy to get to Pinkie's saddlebag, which turned into a big pink purse. She unzipped it and took out the air horn and pressed the button, wincing when it honked loudly.

Her friends jolted awake.

"GOOD MORNING!"

Rarity woke up, screaming at the noise. She saw the tortoise on her stomach, then screamed. She saw her friends, screamed, looked around, not knowing where she was, and screamed. Finally, she saw her own hands and screamed.

Rainbow blared the air horn again. "Rarity, can it!"

Twilight sat up, moaning. "Twi!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "The spell worked!" Twilight processed what she just said and looked around at her friends.

"Wow." She touched the top of her head, her horn still there. Good. "Rarity, do you have your horn?"

"Yes."

"What about you, Rainbow?"

Rainbow gave Twilight a look. "I never had a horn."

"No, genius, your wings."

"Do I?" Rainbow craned her neck over her shoulder, seeing blue wings folded against her back.

She opened them. They'd transformed so they could lift her new weight. They were huge.

"Wow." She said, flapping them so she was hovering a foot above the ground.

Fluttershy sat up then, her wings attached to her back also.

"Good." Twilight said, satisfied. "I managed to turn us to human form but to keep our wings and horns. But, if I took us to the right planet, than the people here don't have wings and horns. So I added a pretty cool function. All you have to do is think _horn retract _or _wings retract _ and they'll disappear until you say _horn appear _ or _wings appear. _

Rainbow decided to test it out-while in the air. _Wings retract. _It worked and she crumpled to the ground.

"Ow."

"You might want to wait until you're on the ground to say that spell." Twilight laughed. "So, it's official. The first half of the spell worked. I transformed us to humans. Now, did I send us to the right planet? What do you think, Spike? Is this Earth?"

When there was no answer, Twilight called again. "Spike?"

Silence.

"Oh no! Where is he? He could be anywhere on this _planet!_ Or what if I left him in Equestria? Or he could be on ANY planet!" Twi's voice was full of fear.

Suddenly there was a groan. Up, fifteen feet in a tree, was a teenage boy draped over a tree branch.

He wore a purple t-shirt under a green hoodie. He had baggy black pants and black Converse high-tops. He had a spiky green Mohawk and and wore skater gloves with a strap across the back of his wrists. His fingernails were black and pointy. It must be Spike.

Rainbow had a disturbing thought. He was kind of cute. Then she threw up in her mouth a little bit. Spike? Cute? She flew up and landed on the tree branch. "Spike? Is that you?"

"Rainbow?" Spike gained full consciousness. "You look weird. You're human."

"Well, look at yourself, bro."

He examined his hands and clothes just as Rainbow had. Suddenly Spike had a pinkish glow surrounding him.

Twilight used her horn to bring Spike down from the tree and hugged him, going on about how worried she was.

Rainbow flew down from the tree and landed next to Spike. It was then she realized how tall he was. Rainbow was the tallest of the name six in human form, about five foot seven. But Spike must have been six foot six. He was a baby dragon! Why was he so tall?

"Sorry to interrupt, but, where are we?" Asked Applejack.

They were standing near a long gravel road with trees and grass on each side.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we're on Earth. And Princess Celestia wouldn't have me teleport us here just to so somewhere else, so following this gravel road is our best bet."

**Well, That's the end of Chapter two, and I'll try to get Chapter three out as soon as I can. I've gotten requests for longer chapters and I'll try to do so. I'm working on Chapter three as we speak and I'm making it longer than the last two. I'm working on other stories at the moment and I'll try to get those out as well. Hope you enjoyed! Please write a review, I love knowing your opinions, but plz, plz, plz be nice about it! **


	3. Chapter 3

A Year in Georgia and Letters to Celestia

Chapter 3

After about a quarter mile, they turned a corner to find a large two-story brick house with many windows and a large garage.

As they came closer, they saw a note was taped to the front door. Twilight detached the paper and read it aloud.

Dear Elements and Spike,

Welcome to Atlanta, Georgia, I hope you all made it here alright.

If you're reading this it means that you've found the house you'll be staying in got the next year.

The following is a list of things I wish for you to accomplish while in America.

I have provided everything to get started living here in Georgia. Food, clothes, money, etc.

But I cannot provide forever, you'll need to fend for yourselves.

Here in America it's everypony-or everyBODY in this scenario- for themselves.

Complete this list to the best of your ability and I'll see you in a year!

Good luck,

Princess Celestia

1-meet new people

2-get a driver's license

3-get a job

4-discover

"Meet new people? I can do that." Spike said.

Twilight yanked at the doorknob. "Locked. How are we supposed to get in?" Twilight read the letter again, looking for any clue.

"Twilight, there's something on the back!" Fluttershy pointed

Twilight flipped over the note over and smacked her forehead. "Of course!"

{There's a key under the doormat}

She retrieved the key from under the mat and unlocked the door. It swung open, revealing a huge interior. The downstairs was enormous, way bigger than needed for seven people. A large TV covered an entire wall, opposite a giant and rather comfy looking L-shaped couch. Pinkie got a running start and leaped onto the couch and lunged for the remote, pressing random buttons until she found the "ON" button.

The others explored the rest of the downstairs, the library, the kitchen, game room, office, dining room, and an octagon shaped sun-room with a door leading out to a big deck looking out over the many fields behind the house.

Rainbow thumped upstairs, taking them two at a time with her long legs. She wondered down the long hallway, opening doors to see a designing room- for Rarity, no doubt- a room with a piano amongst other instruments, another office, and a bar. Yes, a bar.

A long marble counter was lined with red and black checkered bar stools. A juke-box was lit up in the corner. Behind the counter were endless wine glasses and shot glasses and beer mugs and glasses Rainbow didn't have a name for. She spotted a mini-fridge, like the ones in hotel rooms and went over to it, taking extra precautions to not upset the wall of glasses. She opened it to find an assortment of items. She considered having a beer, but thought better of it and grabbed a Mountain Dew.

She continued on, opening doors and loosing count of how many rooms there were. Then she saw a door with her cutie mark on it.

She opened the door to find a wonderful sanctuary. Her room. A queen sized bed sat in the corner with a rainbow comforter. There was a big desk with a collection of at least a dozen lava lamps on it and a boudoir with countless lip glosses, eye liners, and nail polishes. If this was her makeup collection, then she'd love to see Rarity's.

There was a huge walk-in closet lined from wall to wall with clothes and shoes just Rainbow's style. In the back of the closet was another door leading to her very own bathroom. This. Is. Amazing. She ran from the back of her bathroom through her closet and through her room, leaping into the bed. Then she saw a motorcycle jacket laying on her bed, there as if it was the first thing Celestia wanted her to see.

She'd always want a jacket like this. She tried it on in the boudoir. It fit wonderful and it looked awesome! She put her hands in the pockets and felt cold metal. She pulled out a key with a electric lock and a key chain of her cutie mark. Her eyes widened. No way.

Rainbow's loud footsteps could be heard coming own the stairs. Rarity rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe was going to live with these people! Don't get her wrong, she loved all of these girls like sisters, but Rainbow was just so darn loud and chaotic and Applejack was just so darn messy. Judging by the size of the house from the outside, everybody was going to get their own room. She hadn't had the time to go upstairs yet, but she hoped she wouldn't have to share a room. ***How very generous of her***

Rainbow half ran-half flew through the downstairs, still wearing her jacket, passing through the living room with Pinkie and Spike laughing their heads off at the TV.

She had to find the garage.

Applejack was in the sun room, goggling over the large fields when she heard Rainbow's scream. She snapped out of her daze. It was coming from the garage. She ran out to the garage, finding Rainbow screaming and... Jumping up and down. AJ followed her gaze and found a crotch rocket.

***Couldn't find one in the right color, but this is a crotch rocket* imgres?q=crotch+rocket&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1143&bih=754&tbm=isch&tbnid=FhEGTxDoAyMClM:&imgrefurl= www. /shows/newsboy/%3Fp%3D9345&docid=f2xueTtttuOdmM&imgurl= www. &w=500&h=377&ei=SbkAUJD_EKjq2AX5l9y9Cw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=151&vpy=201&dur=1558&hovh=195&hovw=259&tx=73&ty=112&sig=107424169719025675987&page=1&tbnh=166&tbnw=241&start=0&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:141 **It was the same color as her coat was and the full-face helmet had her cutie mark on the sides.

"You lucky butt." AJ said.

"Oh, there's probably a sweet ride in this garage for you too, just not as sweet as my MOTORCYCLE! I love you, Celestia!"

AJ turned on enough lights to light up the whole garage. Her eyes immediately picked out the ride that defined her. It was a huge orange pickup, with her cutie mark on the back window.

"Whoo Hoo!" She yelled pumping her fist in the air. "Guys, get out here! Look at this!" She yelled into the house.

Twilight and Spike were the first ones out.

"My dream ride!" Spike ran over to a bright green Mustang and climbed in through the open window, fingering the steering wheel, his eyes bugging.

Twilight saw her personalized car, It was a dark purple Mini Cooper with a bright pink and lighter purple stripe going up the hood.

"Oh, Celestia, this is amazing!"

Pinkie came out to see her hot pink VW Beatle filled with balloons. She squealed and starting so fast nobody understood her, something about Christmas?

"What is with all this noise? I can't hear my own th-OH!" Rarity's eyes widened to see her white Corvette with three blue jewels on the side.

Fluttershy was the last out. "Is there something wro-..." She stood there, staring at her...

Monster truck.

** *JUST KIDDING!***

It was a smart car. It was yellow with butterflies hanging from the rear view mirror.

Rainbow Dash mounted her bike and turned on the engine. She was about to zoom out the open garage door but Twilight's magic froze the bike in it's place.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"To test this baby out." Rainbow let go of the handlebars and but her hands on her hips.

"Oh, no you don't." Twi said. "You don't have your driver's license yet"

Rainbow flipped up the visor on her helmet, flashing off big puppy-dog eyes. "Pwease?" Her eyes filled up with tears to add effect. "Just around in the field!"

Twilight groaned. There was no arguing with this girl. "Fine. Just don't get yourself arrested."

Rainbow's eyes lit up. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She zoomed off, popping a wheelie, her wings extended.

Twilight managed to get Spike inside, after a lot of negotiating. He was mad that she wouldn't let him drive around in his Mustang. But it had been long time since they had eaten, and everyone was hungry.

Spike sat out on the deck after dinner, watching Rainbow Dash, still on her motorcycle. She could be heard whooping and hollering as she drew patterns in the tall grass with the wheels.

She stopped and looked up at the deck, spotting Spike watching her. She gave a little wave and Spike stood up from the lawn chair. He walked over to the edge, putting his hands on the railing. Rainbow dismounted her bike and flew up to meet Spike, taking off her helmet.

"Howdy." She said.

"That thing is super neat. You're so lucky, you get to ride it. Twilight won't let me drive my Mustang."

"Oh, what a party pooper." Rainbow glanced over into the sun room, checking to see if anybody was watching. The coast was clear. She shoved her helmet into Spike's hands. Surprised, Spike looked at her with confusion on his face. "Do you want to go for a ride?" She asked him.

"On your bike?" She nodded.

"Do I!" Spike grinned, but it almost instantly faded. "Twilight wouldn't let me."

"Twilight doesn't have to know. What she doesn't know won't kill her." Rainbow said simply. Spike's face lit up again and he ran towards the stairs.

"Hey, where you going?" Rainbow asked.

Confused, Spike pointed at the stairs leading down to the ground. "Down to the field."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "You're going to take the stairs? Bro, that's the long, boring way. Do me a favor and stand right here. She pointed at the railing. Still confused, Spike stood up on the railing. Rainbow grabbed Spike from behind him and began flapping her mighty wings.

She took off, leaping off the deck, carrying Spike with her.

The exhilaration was unexplainable. He'd flown in a chariot before, but it was nothing like being utterly suspended in air, with only Rainbow Dash to cling to. They were only in the air for a few seconds, they landed on the ground in front of the bike, where another exhilaration was waiting for him.

As he strapped on Rainbow's helmet she said, "Have fun." and grinned.

Rainbow took off again and landed on the deck, leaving Spike doing wicked 360s, having the time of his life.

Around two hours later after it had gotten dark and Spike had to put the bike away, he sat in a game chair in his room, playing video games when he heard a knock at the door.

"Spike, I'm coming in, put a shirt on!"

Spike chuckled to himself. Not, "Spike, are you in there?" or, "Can I come in?" Nope, it's always "I'm coming in, put a shirt on!" From Rainbow Dash. The door opened a second later and she walked in, taking a seat next to him in the second game chair, picking up the second game controller and joining in on the race game Spike was playing on the flat screen TV. She was wearing white sweats and a silk shirt with clouds on it. Her hair was wet from the shower and random locks stuck to her neck and face. Her breath smelled fresh, like she'd just brushed her teeth.

"Can you still breathe fire?" She asked while pushing Spike's car out of the way, gaining the first place spot.

Spike gave her a look, because she was beating on the video game and because of the randomness of the question. "Well, yeah. How else would we get letters to Celestia?"

"Good. Because I want to send her something." She took a yellow piece of paper out from her back pocket and tossed it onto his bed.

"It's not Saturday, though."

"Yeah, well it's just a letter thanking her for the bike and asking why the hay you're so tall."

"Seriously?" Spike laughed. She nodded.

Rainbow Dash beat Spike that game, and the next and the next. Spike insisted he kept playing until he beat her. When he tried hard enough, he was able to pass her on a really sharp turn. Her wings ruffled and splayed out in surprise.

"Oh, no you don't!" She put in all her effort, leaning with the controller as she turned but Spike was too far ahead.

You win some; you loose some.

**{Author's note} Oh, Styx, is chapter three over already? Geez, I haven't even started on chapter four yet! It's all still in my head. Anyway, sorry for the REALLY cheesy part where everybody comes out and sees their own car. Everybody needed to drive in this story, so I figured, why not go all out with the cars? It's corny, but Oh well. Anywhoo... I'm gonna go start chapter four or maybe go eat something or work on one of my other stories. I'll try getting chapter four out soon, please write a review! I love knowing your opinions, but plz, plz, plz, be nice about it! ~CheddarandPretzelCombos**


	4. Chapter 4

**A Year in Georgia and Letters to Celestia**

**Chapter 4**

**Rainbow Dash woke up earlier than usual the next morning and came downstairs to find Spike, Twilight and Rarity already awake.**

**Rarity and Twilight sat at the table in the dining room while Spike made breakfast in the kitchen. Rainbow sat at the table, greeting her friends. She then put her head down on the table, her face and the plate making contact with a clang. She'd never been much of a morning person, and never will be.**

**"I'm so tired!" When Spike heard Rainbow's voice, he took off the apron he was wearing.**

**"What are you doing up so early?" Rarity asked.**

**"I thought I'd get working on number two on the list. I have to get to the Driver's Ed building right when they open if I don't have an appointment."**

**"Well, how do you plan on getting there? None of us have a license yet." Twilight said, looking up from the novel she was reading.**

**In response, Rainbow flapped her wings once, twice and made a remark into her plate that sounded like "Herp de Derp."**

**Rarity cleared her throat. "Well, I was thinking."**

**_There's a first. _Rainbow thought in her crabby morning mood.**

**"Won't it be a a good idea for some of to change our names while in America? I mean, I'm sure Twilight isn't the most popular name in this world."**

**"Good point." Spike said, coming into the dining room, dusting off his hands. "Let's start with Twi. She looks like an Olivia to me. How does that sound, O?"**

**"It's not half bad, let's keep it." Rarity said.**

**"Okay, this is fun. Dash, you're next. Something about the air. Like, what about Sky? Short for Skyler." Spike said, thinking he was pretty good with names. Rainbow mumbled something into her plate that Spike took as a "Yes."**

**"I think I should keep my own name, I mean Rarity doesn't sound like a bad name at all." Rarity said.**

**"Alright. Who's next? Pinkie's easy. We'll just use her real name. Not Pinkamina, but Dianne. And AJ is easy, too. We'll just call her Jack. Short for Jackie.**

**"Fluttershy seems like an Abagail to me." Twilight said, not about to let Spike give all the names.**

**"And that leaves me." Spike tapped his foot, not able to come up with a name suitable for himself.**

**Rainbow lifted her face from the dish. "Sam."**

**"Sam." Spike sounded it out. "It's not bad. It'll be fine."**

**AJ came downstairs, still wearing her pajamas. "G'mornin' y'all."**

**"Hey, Jack, I'm going over to the newsroom later today to see if they want to hire me as a Meteorologist. Wanna come with?" Dashie asked.**

**"Sure. That'll be fun."**

**"Kay. I'll pick you up after I get my driver's license." She said, shooting finger guns into the sir in mini-celebration.**

**"Rainbow, you haven't gotten your license yet." Rarity said, giving her a look.**

**"Oh, I see how it is. You think I can't do it! Well, just because I'm reckless with everything else does not mean I'll be a reckless driver!"**

**Rarity stammered. "Well-no, I.**

**"I'll be laughing when I come home with my license and it takes you five tries!"**

**Rarity scoffed. "Rainbow, I never said anything like that. You're just grumpy on the mornings."**

**Rainbow stood up abruptly, looking at the clock. "Kolo, I'm late!" She jogged through the kitchen, grabbing a piece of toast with strawberry jelly. "Bye, guys! Wish me luck!"**

**Rainbow ran out the door and leaped off the deck, taking flight. She flew to th city about three miles away, Atlanta and landed about a block away from the Driver's Ed building in an alley, getting rid of her wings.**

**The door chimed as she walked in and she walked to the front desk. She rang a bell**

it giving off a happy little _ding._

A middle aged woman with too much makeup came out from nowhere and gave Dashie a smile with too white teeth.

"Hi, I'd like to register for a license."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"Yeah, no."

The woman smiled again. She seemed a little too optimistic to have Rainbow here. "Well, you're in luck. We don't have anybody coming in for another hour, so we can test you right now. I'll get a driving instructor." She smiled yet again and walked off to a room behind the counter.

Rainbow walked over to a chair and sat down, crossed-legged. _Okay, she lives in creepy town, right next to the bucket of turnips and right across the street from the Owlicious-Angel-Gummy mutant. _

Seconds later a man walked out of the staff room, looking disgusted with everything on the planet. He had a scowl on his face that said _I'm surrounded by idiots and I'm upset about it. _

Rainbow stood up. The dude, who's name tag read Bill, took one look at the rainbow-haired girl standing in front of him and his scowl deepened.

"You got a ride?" He asked in a gruff voice. His tone was so obviously exasperated he might as well said "You got a ride? Because from the looks of it, you aren't walking out of this place with a license, punk."

Dash wanted to spit on his shoes, but earned Achievement of the Year by refraining to do so and instead put on a winning smile. "Yes, _sir, _I Do."

*Okey Dokey Lokey, this author knows nothing about taking a driving test, written or physical, so she is going to skip the details on that subject and just say that, yes, our beloved Rainbow Dash does pass. Tehehe it's fun talking about yourself in third person.*

Applejack sat in the couch in the living room with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy; who had just woken up. They were all watching a really cool movie about a kid named Marty from the 80s who goes back in time to the 1950s in a DeLorean. They were at the really suspenseful part where the bolt of lightning was about to hit the clock tower.

Suddenly Rainbow Dash flew in and shouted Applejack's name. "Come on, AJ! Let's go to the newsroom!"

When AJ didn't respond Dash planted herself in front of the TV just as the cable came undone during the show.

"Dashie! Move!" Pinkie screeched and the three on the couch leaned, trying to get a glimpse of the movie. Rainbow just splayed her wings, blocking any view they had. Fluttershy flew up above Rainbow,watching the TV from her head.

"AJ, get a move on!" Dashie backed herself up against the TV doing everything she could to be annoying. But as soon as she heard the DeLorean's engine revving, she turned around and got sucked into the movie. She plopped herself down next to Pinkie Pie and watched as the bolt struck the clock tower and went down the wire just as the DeLorean drove under it, sending the car "back to the future" *See what I did there?*

Fluttershy clapped and Pinkie squealed and AJ whooped and RD whistled and pumped her fist in the air.

They watched as Marty jogged across town and watched his friend get shot. They watched as the Past Marty called the terrorists a word this author wouldn't dare repeat and they watched all the way until the credits, glued to the screen until the very last word.

"Ow, I haven't blinked n twenty minutes!" Pinkie said, rubbing her eyes.

"Fromage at pépities! We need to go!" Rainbow grabbed AJ's hand and pulled her out the door. She thrust the spare helmet into her friend's hands and sped out the garage door, gassing it to the newsroom.

**_Okay, that's chapter four. I just HAD to put in some Back to the Future in there, love that movie. Alright, alright, I know that chapter stunk. It just was a really long time since I uploaded a chapter for this story so I panicked and threw something together. (Sorry about the sudden type change there in the middle, Open Office was being Mental.) I've been putting off some things I have planned for this story because I think it'll be really hard to write. Okay, fine, I'll tell you what I have planned. I'm thinking about having some SpikeXRainbow shipping in the next chapter but I don't know if I'll be able to do it, me being a die-hard Soarin-Dash fan. Plus, where would I even GO with that? Oh, Idk, please put a review with what you think I should do. I've got much more planned for this story but I've been so busy lately. *Lazy* I haven't even started on future chapters, they're all in my head still, but I'll try to hurry. Thanks for reading this, I can't believe how long this ended up being. Oops. Oh well, :)  
_**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter five**

After a speedy ride on Rainbow Dash's bike, they arrived at the newsroom, their hair blown out by the fast wind.

They entered the cool building and saw a woman who gave them a _I'll be with you in just a minute _look. They sat down in a couple of chairs and Applejack lost herself in a farming magazine while Rainbow filled out a meteorology quiz. A minute later, a man dressed in a button-up shirt and dress pants came in the room.

Rainbow stood up and put on her winning smile. As she handed him her quiz she said, "Good morning, I'm Skyler Dash. I'm here to apply for a job as a meteorologist."

The man gave her a look, a look that wasn't good. "I... Um, you see, Miss Dash, I don't quite think you're exactly what we're looking for on the news team." Rainbow's smile slowly faded, replaced by a confused look.

"What? But..."

"Maybe if your hair wasn't quite so... flashy. We're looking for someone a little more mature, like..." The man's gaze drifted behind the girl's shoulder. "Like her! That's one we're looking for!"

"Me?" Applejack asked, dumbfounded. "Oh, no no, I'm not applying. I'm just here with Sky."

"Oh, nonsense. You're perfect! What's your name, young lady?"

"Jacki Smith. But really, I'm not here to apply." AJ said, getting to her feet as the man gave her a firm hand shake.

"I'm Brian Grant. Are you currently employed?" Brian asked.

"Well... No. I honestly wasn't looking for employment here." She glanced over to her rainbow haired friend for help, who had a look of pure horror on her face.

"Please? You'd be perfect for the main stories on the five o'clock news!" Brian said.

"Well-"

"Great! You start Monday! Here, let me show you around the newsroom. Er, Miss Dash, you may go."

Rainbow stood as still as a statue, watching in utter disbelief as her friend got hired in thirty seconds.

"But she'd my ride!" AJ said to Brian.

"Oh, no big deal. We can get you a ride as soon as we're done here. Nice meeting you, Skyler Dash." Brian gave a curt nod to Rainbow, who was still rooted to the spot. She watched as her friend was swept away, and still stood there long after her and Brian left the room.

"But..." She said, her voice barely a whisper as tears welled up in her eyes.

Fluttershy heard the garage door open and close, and, soon after, heard Rainbow Dash come in. "Hi, Rainbow, how'd it go? Wait, where's Applejack?"

"Getting a grand tour of the newsroom with Brian." She said_ Brian _like it was a dirty word. Fluttershy watched as her friend's eyes filled up with tears. She immediately understood and embraced her crying friend in a hug.

"Oh, Rainbow. I'm so sorry!" Rainbow Dash hugged her friend back, sniffling over Fluttershy's shoulder.

"Now, come on. Let's get you sat down, you've been through a lot." She said in her signature sweet and quiet voice. Fluttershy led Rainbow to the living room and made coffee for them both and sat on the couch next to her weeping friend.

"You should have seen it, Shy. I hand in my test and he gives me one look, decides I'm not good enough, and pushes me aside for _Applejack." _

She gripped her mug, staring at the cream liquid slightly swirling itself as tears streamed down her face. She gave a little smile and chuckled. "I'm sorry you have to see like this. I probably look utterly pathetic. I just... I wanted that job so bad. But there'll be other jobs, right? Thanks for listening, Shy."

"That's what friends are for." Fluttershy said, getting sappy.

A door swung open and Spike walked in the living room from the arcade. Rainbow Dash quickly wiped away her tears and stared into her lap, begging Celestia Spike didn't catch her red face.

"Rainbow Dash! What's wrong?" Crap.

"Oh, nothing. I just didn't get the job. AJ did."

"Spike sat on the other of Rainbow. "Sorry, dude. Hey, I'm sure it'll make you feel better going out to get your mind off of it. We'll go anywhere you want to go, right, Fluttershy?"

"Oh, sure. It'll be fun." She said meekly.

Dash sniffed. "Really? You'll let me drag you where ever I want?"

"Why not?"

She smiled. "Spike, get the keys."

Rainbow Dash drove the green Mustang with Fluttershy riding shotgun and Spike crammed in the back seat. "Where are we going?" Spike asked.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out." Soon Rainbow Dash pulled into a playground parking lot.

"You can't be serious. A playground?" Spike laughed.

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun." She said, cutting the engine and climbing out of the car, running towards the swing sets, leaving the other two no choice but to scramble out and run after her.

Rainbow plopped herself on a swing as Spike and Fluttershy caught up. Spike took the swing in the middle as Fluttershy gingerly sat on the other side of the tall spiky haired boy, smoothing out her green skirt.

"Race you." Spike said to the two girls.

"You're on. Shy, a countdown, please." Rainbow said, grinning

"Kay. One, two, three!" She kicked at the ground hard with her sandals as the said three; putting herself in first place at the very start.

Rainbow pumped her legs hard but found it hard to compete with Spike's uber long legs. Finally she pulled ahead as the swing peaked. She pumped her fists in the air, whooping.

"Whoo! I won!"

"No way, you're blind! I SO beat you!" Spike said, his swing also at the peak.

"Nuh-uh! I _clearly_ kicked your butt. It would be a lot easier to determine if I had my wings busted out, then I would have beat you in ten seconds flat!"

"Well, no one's around. Show me." Both Shy and Rainbow splayed their wings, pumping them in unison with their legs, making chain go loose instead of taught as they went back and fourth.

Spike stared at Rainbow as she splayed her huge cyan wings while she swung. She was so elegant as she cut through the air. Her hair blew in all directions, showing off a spectrum of colors. So graceful, so at home in the air, so... beautiful. Beautiful. Did he just think that? Wait, Rainbow Dash? Beautiful? Did he have a crush on Rainbow Dash? He_ had_ always admired her hair, even though she never brushed it as a pony, and never showed it off, he still noticed how beautiful it was, the wide array of colors.

Rainbow Dash was beautiful, and she wasn't even trying. Suddenly Spike had a thought. Rarity. She was beautiful too. His heart was torn. Then Spike had another thought, a depressing one. It didn't even matter if he liked two girls, they didn't like him back, _that way_. Plus, Rarity had a crush on that Royal Blue-What's-his-face and Rainbow Dash was dating that Wonderbolt, Soarin. But that _was_ in another world.

Rainbow Dash looked over and caught Spike staring at her. He looked away sheepishly.

"Dare me to jump?" She asked.

"Yeah! Just don't die." Spike said.

"Oh, my, be careful Rainbow." Shy said. At the height of the swing's arc, Rainbow lat go and let herself leap through the air, not using her wings. She stuck the landing, but then stumbled and landed on her face.

Spike and Fluttershy shy laughed from their spots on the swings. Rainbow Dash found a stick and stuck it in the grass, making a marker where she landed.

"Bet you can't beat that."

Fluttershy leaped off her swing next, sailing through the air. But instead of landing on her face, she screeched to a halt half an inch from the ground and landed gracefully with the help of her wings, her stick only half an inch behind Dash's.

Spike was the last to leap from his swing, landing a respectable half inch behind Shy.

As Spike and Fluttershy promised, they let Rainbow Dash drag them all around Atlanta. The day was filled with sweaty fun, after the park they rode bikes then went to the roller rink.

They ended the day by getting some ice cream, but, with Rainbow Dash around, they couldn't JUST get ice cream. They had to get about a million toppings and have a contest by seeing who could eat theirs the fastest.

On the ride home Rainbow Dash said, "Thanks for doing this with me today. I've nearly forgot about this morning. You guys are great."

"You're welcome, Dash. That's what we're here for." Fluttershy said, getting sappy for the second time that day.

AJ arrived at the house after being dropped off by Brian, feeling miserable. What had she just done? She just stole her friend's job, that what she did. She walked in the front door, her head hung low. After finding that she was the only one home, she decided to put herself to good use and start making dinner. I wasn't long after she began that she heard a car pull into the garage. Twilight came in seconds later, yakking on about her job acceptance at the library-where else?

She made herself useful by chopping up a tomato on the counter next to Applejack, who hadn't said anything.

After a minute or so of silence, Twilight asked, "Applejack, are you okay?"

"Nope."

"What happened?"

"I just stole Rainbow's job." She told Twi what happened, and how bad she felt.

After she finished, Twilight was quiet for a moment. "Aww, AJ, you know Rainbow Dash, she'll come around."

"I sure hope you're right, Twi."

A while later, the Mustang could be heard revving its way into the garage. Spike, Fluttershy, and RD filed in. Rainbow walked in the kitchen and stopped abruptly in front of AJ. She gave her signature glare to AJ, and turned on her heel, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the counter and proceeded to walk upstairs.

"She'll come around, huh?" Applejack quoted Twilight.

Rainbow Dash spent the rest of the evening in her bedroom, giving the house a quiet and rather tense atmosphere.

_Dear Princess Celestia,_

_ Okay, It's Tuesday and my day to write to you. Well, I've always known that life is full of up and downs, but today, Rainbow Dash suffered from a pretty big down. She went over to the news station with Applejack to apply for a meteorologist, but AJ ended up getting hired. So Fluttershy and I spent our day with her, cheering her up._

_ As far as learning about the advanced-ness of America... Well, I request whatever we bring back into Equestria you take into deep consideration what you introduce to everypony. Be sure to think of worst possible case-scenarios. Because this world has already gotten the best of the toughest person I know. (Rainbow Dash broke into tears earlier today. But she probably wouldn't be happy to hear I told you that. You didn't hear it from me!) _

_ See you in three hundred and sixty-four days!_

_ ~Spike_

_**Yay I'm done w/ another chapter. **  
_

_**Ok, I've finally managed it... SpikeXRainbow Shipping. I almost gave up on the idea, given I'm such a die-hard SoarinDash fan I didn't think I'd be able to do it. Anyway I have NO IDEA where I'm going with Spike's little infatuation. Maybe just leave it alone for a while and have it fit in during a future chapter.  
**_

_**Dang, this chapter went fast. (Not very good on my part) Only one page in and AJ already is being swept away by Brian. (May accidentally type "Brain" instead of "Brian" my bad in advance.) Anyway, I'll try to make ch.6 more deep description-wise. I'll get on that rite away. PLZ write a review!  
**_

_**THX!  
CheddarandPretzelCombos.  
**_

_**P.S. If you're bored waiting on me between chapters, be sure to check our my other story (the complete one)  
**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter six!**

Rainbow Dash woke up feeling great, most likely because she fell asleep early and got a bunch of sleep. But, remembering AJ, she put on a frown and walked downstairs, still wearing sweats and a plain tank top.

She was the fourth one up, like yesterday, and, also like yesterday, she found Twilight sitting across from Rarity at the table, with Spike walking in from the kitchen. She plopped down next to Rarity.

_Oh, God, they're both beautiful. _Spike stood in front of his two crushes, who were sitting next to each other in the dining room. Rarity was in full makeup, full hair do, and fully dressed, looking ready to tackle the day. Rainbow Dash was beautiful in her own way. Her hair was all messed up, sticking up in places and fluffy, pure bed head. She wore no makeup and was wearing what she wore to bed, but still looked flawless.

Spike realized he was staring in his daydream and jumped when Twilight waved a hand in his face, shouting his name. "Hello, Spike! Earth to Spike?!"

"Oh sorry. I guess I'm just tired." He lied. Good thing he wasn't the Element of Honesty, or he'd be toast.

"..."

"Anyway," Rarity said, "Rainbow Dash, we're all going to the Belgian Waffle House for breakfast, you were in your room, so you didn't hear the agreement. But would you still like to go with us?"

"Yeah. Why not?" Rainbow said, hastily throwing her hair up in a ponytail.

Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy rode in the Corvette while Pinkie, AJ, and Spike piled in his Mustang. Rainbow Dash refused to ride in either vehicle and rode on her bike to the restaurant.

The ride in the Mustang was silent, which was saying something, considering Pinkie was in there. Pinkie snook anxious looks at Applejack in the rear-view mirror. She also glanced frequently over at Spike to her right. (Yes, that does mean that Pinkie is driving. She is the only one with her license, Spike was busy with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy yesterday, and AJ was in the newsroom, so they didn't have a chance yesterday.)

She gripped the steering wheel, her hands at 9 and 3. She drummed her fingers at stoplights, soon unable to stand the silence any longer. "Applejack, you okay back there?"

AJ sighed. "Spike, is she really mad at me?"

"Spike almost laughed. "The maddest. You should have seen her yesterday, she looked like a crazy cat la-I mean- gosh, AJ, you know Rainbow Dash, she always comes around. It'll turn out fine, she's probably already forgotten about it."

"Wait, why is Rainbow Dash mad at Applejack?" Pinkie was lost, as she found herself surprisingly often.

"When Dash took her over to the newsroom yesterday, AJ ended up getting the job."

"Ouch."

Pinkie pulled in the parking lot and pulled in a spot to the left of Rainbow Dash, who had only just pulled in herself. Spike stared as she pulled off her helmet, revealing her amazing hair. She ran her fingers through it, and then flipped her hair. It wasn't a showy hair flip, like a ooh-look-at-my-gorgeous-spectrum-colored-hair hair flip, but more of a ugh-you-stupid-hair-get-the-hail-out-of-my-eyes-I-swear-one-of-these-days-I'm-going-to-chop-you-off hair flip, if that makes sense.

"Spike? Spike!" Spike was sucked back into the real by Applejack's voice, who was looking out the window at Rainbow as well.

"Huh?"

"Do you think she hates my guts?"

"Let's just figure that out in the restaurant, okay? I'm hungry!" Pinkie said, opening her door and climbing out.

The seven found a booth together in the restaurant and ordered either coffee or hot cocoa. Both Rainbow Dash and AJ stayed silent as multiple conversations buzzed around the table. AJ sat across from Rainbow, feeling sorry for herself. She spent a lot of time gathering up the courage to talk to Rainbow, to tell her she was sorry and it wasn't her fault.

Spike kept elbowing Rainbow in the ribs, wanting her to join in on the conversations, but she soon got tired of it and started threatening him. "Stop trying to cheer me up or I'll send The Big Guns after you. The Bug Guns, as Rainbow Dash referred it to, was Pinkie Pie in her "pickle barrel kumquat chimmy cherry changa" mode.

Soon, AJ couldn't wait any longer. While Rainbow was egging Fluttershy to eat a piece of bacon she said, "Dash."

She looked over. She opened her mouth to respond when "Sunshine and Celery Stalks" started playing. (*Disclaimer* I do not own Sunshine and Celery Stalks, all credit goes to PinkiePieSwear) Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and pulled her Android smart phone from her hiking boot.

"This is Sky...Well, _hi..._Oh? Is that so?...Well, thanks. See you."

Rainbow slid her finger across the screen to stop the call. "AJ, what were you saying?"

"Rainbow, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I took your job... I wish what happened yesterday didn't happen. I hope you don't hate me... Can you ever forgive me?" AJ sputtered out, staring into her coffee mug, unable to look in her friend's intense magenta eyes. A moment later, she forced herself to look up.

Rainbow Dash was grinning.

"Oh, AJ, you know I'll always come around. Of course I forgive you. Plus, you're just the hardest person to stay mad at. It's cool."

"Thanks. So, who was that on the phone?" AJ asked.

"Your boyfriend, Brian."

"Hey, he's not my boyfriend! Wait, why did he call you?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Not important... Are you sure you want to know?" Rainbow grinned a grin that would put Shamu to shame.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Well, it seems... presumably, that we may become...oh, what was the word?... CO-WORKERS!"

"What? Really? So you got the job?"

Though it may seem impossible, Dash's grin grew. "Yep! He said he looked over my quiz and I got a perfect score. Supposedly, there's only been one other person to get a perfect score on that quiz." When Rainbow Dash started her signature fangirl squeal, all the conversations at the booth came to a screeching halt and all six stared at her.

"We are now witnessing one of the rare moments in which Rainbow Dash is actually behaving like a girl." Spike said in an alligator hunter's voice.

Rainbow punched him in the shoulder as she hopped up and down in her seat.

"AJ, what happened?"

"Either we are witnessing a moment in which Rainbow Dash is happy, or a seizure." Spike said, just asking for another punch.

"She got the job! Brian just called." AJ said, feeling as if a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders.

"Oh, good! I was afraid for her when she was put down the first time."

"Will somebody please explain what's going on?!" Rarity shouted over Rainbow.

As everyone explained the events of yesterday, the food was brought out. "I swear, I am the last to know about EVERYTHING! Nobody ever tells me a thing!"

The group dare for the day was to try meat. Being ponies, this was a brand new concept, still,some were less reluctant than others.

"Holy Hestia, this stuff if good! Fluttershy, try some!" Rainbow waved some bacon in her nervous friend's face, who shied away from the dead pig.

Eventually everyone got Fluttershy to eat some bacon, and she liked it. After breakfast, the seven went home for a kind of stay-at-home-and-snuggle-up-under-a-big-blanket-and-watch-movies day.

After the watching Raider's of the Lost Ark twice in a row, Rainbow Dash insisted they watch it "just one more time" but then decided that she needed more entertainment, and watched it upside down. *This author has done that. She's watched most of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from upside down it was awesome* After the third time Pinkie shouted, "Next movie!" and put in Temple of Doom.

Spike loved these kind of days. Days here nothing had to be accomplished and you could just sit with your friends without a worry. He was in between AJ and Rainbow Dash, very aware of her shoulder pressed against his. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. They didn't eat any meals for the rest of the day, just getting up one at a time to load up on junk food.

About half way through Kingdom of the Crystal skull, Spike glanced over at the clock. It was past midnight. He could hear the deep, rhythmic breathing of a sleeping AJ next to him and he leaned forward to see Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy also asleep, with Twilight nearly there.

He stole a glance at Rainbow, who stifled a yawn. He felt very tired himself.

Around the part where the Ukrainian lady was getting her brain fried by the guy from Mars, Spike dozed off next to all his friends on the couch.

Spike woke up the next morning, blinking at the blue light from the TV. He looked over to see a sleeping Dash slumped against his shoulder. She was so pretty. He eased up, trying not to wake up AJ more than RD, because he knew Rainbow would sleep through anything short of a scream. AJ stirred slightly, but didn't wake.

He decided to do something productive and get started on breakfast and passed the rest of the girls on the couch to get to the kitchen. He paused, looking at his friends, slumped over each other. Girls.

He looked over Rainbow Dash, who was separated from the others by the space that Spike had contained seconds ago. She looked somewhat depressing, curled up on the edge, all alone. Most of the blanket was being hogged by the four girls on the other side of Applejack, so Rainbow didn't have any. Spike thought about sitting back down and comforting her, but that would wake someone up for sure. He settled for draping a blanket over her shoulders.

He brushed a lock of blue hair out of her face, and she remained fast asleep. She was so pretty. But then he glanced over at Rarity, who was between Pinkie and Twilight. She was also very pretty. So peaceful, with Twi snuggled against her shoulder and Pinkie's hand on her face. Spike had never been so torn. But what did it matter?

He sighed and walked into the kitchen.

The pancakes were done and getting cold and the girls hadn't so much as stirred. Spike turned on the egg timer fifteen seconds and waited. The loud, annoying buzz jolted everyone awake and Spike got a shoe thrown at his head.

After breakfast, everyone was anxious to get either their jobs, licenses, or, in Rarity's case, a cute jacket on sale at Kohl's. Which left Rainbow tagging along with Rarity, because she already had her job and license.

"Rainbow, if my career was at stake, and you had the opportunity to possibly save it, would you do so?" Rarity asked her rainbow-haired friend, who was sitting shotgun in her Corvette.

"Is this a hypothetical career?" She asked.

"Possibly."

"Depends. I _am _the Element of Loyalty, but I might be reluctant to help you if it involved me making myself look ridiculous."

"That was a yes or no question, Dash."

"Fine. Sure."

"Oh, good. Because as it turns out, that career was not hypothetical, and I am SO glad I have you to help me."

"What have I gotten myself into?"

Rarity sat in a chair in the shoe store, surrounded by about a dozen boxes of shoes while Rainbow Dash stood in front of her, modeling a pair of cherry red stilettos.

"Remind me again how this is saving your career?" She asked as Rarity did a finger motion for Dash to turn around.

"The wedding dress designer in the mall says she'd be happy to hire me if I can show her what I can do. I must create a magnificent dress to truly inspire her, leaving her in awe, so she'll just have to hire me." she explained as her Rainbow haired friend walked up and down the isle with freaky balance for someone who never wears heels.

"And I'm involved in this how?"

"You're the perfect model for me! We just have to buy the right pair of shoes, then I'll design the most wonderful dress that designer's ever seen!"

"Me? Your model? Have you even met me? I'm not usually ones to play dress up, Rarity." Rainbow said as she traded out the cherry stilettos for white platform heels.

"Rainbow. You said you were going to help me. And you are perfect for this. You're one of the skinniest of the girls, you're nice and tall, and you're a very pretty girl." Rarity said, silently enjoying Rainbow's pain. It was just so funny seeing her in her rare girly form.

"Come on Rarity, don't lez out on me. Now, have you decided on a pair of shoes yet?"

Rarity cleared her throat. "Yes. I think the white platforms are our best bet. Let's go. I've got a dress to create."

Rainbow let herself be dragged back through the store and back home.

**Athena's Chariot, that chapter served no purpose, except for Rainbow getting a job and going further with Spike's infatuation. (Still don't know where I'm going with that.) Ok, so I'm thinking a couple more chapters of filler like this *spoiler alert- Twi gets a boyfriend* and then have my dramatic ending. So here is what I'm thinking for some filler..**

**Camping!**

**Going to the beach**

**Zoo?**

**Rarity crushing on guy (that'll be good)**

**Write a review on something you want the mane six-seven-to do and I'll take it into consideration.**

**Will someone remind me why I named it "and letters to celestia"? I only have one letter so far. I just don't know what to write about. Oh well, I'll deal with that later.**

**Thx for reading and plz write a review, favorite, and stuff like that. (it makes me all warm and fuzzy) and be sure to check out my other story-a SoarinDash fic. (SoarinDash FTW!)**

**OK, I'll so work on... what?... Chapter seven?.. Yah, chapter seven.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Huzzah! Chapter 7!**

The next afternoon Rainbow Dash and Rarity had trashed the living room with fabrics, glitter and other designing materials. Rarity sat on the couch, her lap blanketed white dress silks.

"Okay, so it's between the eggshell and the cream." She said, holding up two materials draped over her arms. "What think you, Dash?"

Rainbow Dash stood in front of Rarity in the white platform heels. "The white one." She said. Honestly, Rainbow thought Rarity was joking with her, because the two materials looked exactly the same.

"Hmm. You're right. The eggshell does look more traditional. Let's go with that one." Rarity said, completely ignoring what Dash said.

Rarity stood up and approached Dash with a tape measure, stepping over the fabrics laying haphazardly across the floor. "Spread your wings, please." Rainbow's big cyan wings flitted open from their folded position on her back, nearly whacking Rarity on the face. Dash stood there with her arms crossed as Rarity measured her height, waist, and just about everything else.

. . .

Twilight Sparkle glanced at the clock. Her shift was over in only ten minutes. That gave her just enough time to re-shelf one cart of books then clock out and head home. She wheeled the cart over to _History _and started shoving James Adams books back on the James Adams shelf.

She glanced through an empty spot of the shelf and saw her cute co-worker Tyler. He sat at the information desk, clicking away at the computer. He had short spiky medium-blonde hair and light emerald eyes. He was tall with white teeth in contrast to his dark tan. While Twilight stood there, peeking through the space in the bookshelf, absently grabbing books and shelving them, one slipped from her hand and landed with a heavy _thud _on the marble floors.

"Styx!" She quickly ducked down as Tyler looked over, trying to pinpoint the noise. Twi picked up the book and shoved it back on the cart, cursing silently for giving herself away.

She glanced over to Tyler's desk to see the swivel chair was empty and spotted Tyler briskly walking towards Twilight's hiding spot; the history section.

She started to push the cart to make her escape, but suddenly Tyler was leaning against the bookcase.

"Hey, Olive."

"Um, Hi Tyler." Twilight blushed at her nickname that Tyler gave her. Technically, Rainbow Dash had come up with the nickname first, but Tyler didn't need Dash's help.

Tyler glanced over to the bookshelf and frowned at a book. "You know, Lincoln doesn't go under 'A'." He pulled _The Life of George Washington Carver _out from two James Adams books and leaned past Twilight's shoulder to put it with the rest of the Cs.

"Oh, well, um..." She must've re-shelved the book in the wrong place when she wasn't paying attention.

"It's all good. You're new, I won't report you or anything."

"Er-Well.. I... Thanks."

"Don't mention it. You know, I was thinking...Do you want to hang out sometime, Olivia?" Tyler asked casually.

Twilight was stunned. Her crush was asking her out. She was not about to let this opportunity slip by.

"You know, I'd love to." She said, trying to keep cool.

"Sweet. When are you free?"

"Hey, I'm free right now. Do you want to come over to my place? I could make dinner and you could meet all my friends." Twi said, regaining her ability to articulate properly. She had calmed down a bit, Tyler had that calming element about him.

"That'd be great!"

"Let's go now, my shift's over." Tyler slipped his hand into hers as they walked to the door, Twilight trying to keep from blushing.

. . .

"How Much longer, Rarity?" Rainbow complained about not being to move around as Rarity continued to measure.

Suddenly the front door opened and Twilight walked in, with a stranger. Rainbow jumped and let out a yelp of surprise and quickly folded her wings against her back, but she could tell by the look on the stranger's face that he already saw. "Were those _wings?_"

"Er-yeah. For a costume party." She said quickly. She just loved herself sometimes for being able to come up with a lie so quickly.

"Neat! Can I see them?"

"You know, they're real delicate, and they're already falling apart, see?" She demonstrated by pulling out a handful of feathers off, trying not to wince as the sharp pain filled her left wing. "I'm just going to... Put them upstairs." Rainbow side stepped, hiding her back from the dude. As she passed she gave Twilight a punch in the shoulder and hissed in her ear "Warn me next time you bring a stranger home."

As her footsteps ran upstairs, Tyler called, "Nice to meet you!" and then turned to Rarity.

"Twi-er-Olivia, you didn't tell us we were having a guest this evening." Rarity said, putting on a smile as she started picking up all the fabrics strewn across the living room floor.

"Well, it was kind of last minute. Rarity, this is my co-worker, Tyler, Tyler, this is my friend Rarity. And you've already met Sky." Rainbow Dash sat down on the couch after having to go upstairs for nothing.

"Hi!" Tyler said to the two girls.

"You'll meet the rest later." Twilight said.

"There's more?"

"Yeah, there's seven people living in this house." Dash said." You have yet to meet Abs, Sam, Jack and Dianne. That'll be rich, wait until he meets Dianne."

"Abs?" Tyler asked.

"Abigail." Twilight said dismissively. "Do you want something to drink? We've got everything under the sun upstairs. Follow me."

As Twilight and Tyler went to the bar upstairs, Rainbow shouted after them, "Bring me a beer!"

"That's likely." Twilight's voice drifted downstairs.

Rarity glared at Rainbow Dash who smirked and turned on the TV.

Twilight expected herself to clam up once she was alone again with Tyler, but his whole being had a kind of calming element to it, and she found it very easy to carry a conversation.

He was a very nice person, but she often caught him staring at her hair.

Finally, he asked about it. "Why does everyone in this house have such crazy-colored hair in this house? If you don't mind me asking."

"Oh, we just have a thing about dying our hair." Twilight said, feeling bad about lying to Tyler. They chatted for a while longer about several subjects, the library, the stars, the tourist attractions, but they weren't alone for long.

Rainbow Dash, Spike, and Pinkie walked into the bar and Spike walked strait to the mini fridge, grabbing a Pepsi.

"Hey, eggheads!" Rainbow hollered and sat cross-legged on a bar stool next to Twilight Sparkle. Pinkie Pie's eyes lit up with enthusiasm. She was going to meet somebody new!

She ran over and put an arm over both Twilight and Tyler and said cheerfully, "Hi, I'm Pinkie and I love making new friends!"

Suddenly Rainbow Dash started coughing.

*Cough "Dianne" Cough*

"Oh, right. My real name's Dianne, but you can call me Pinkie! All my friends call me Pinkie, you can see why." She twirled a lock of pink hair that hung in front of her face with a finger with pink sparkled nail polish.

"Hi, Pinkie." Tyler said holding out his hand which Pinkie shook happily.

Spike introduced himself (as Sam) and said he was Twilight's Aunt's brother-in-law's son once removed. Rainbow Dash got her much earned sugary soda and started spinning Pinkie Pie on the bar stool as fast as she could, Pinkie laughing like a maniac.

"Hey Sky." Twilight said, slightly aggravated that Rainbow had to go and bring up half the house to the bar. She was trying to have a civilized conversation with Tyler and Rainbow was spinning Pinkie on a bar stool. Typical.

"What?" Dash slapped the bar stool again.

"Are Abigail and Jackie home yet?"

"Abs and Jack." Dash corrected. "Yeah, they got caught up downstairs by the evil beast the wraps you in suffocating materials, also known as Rarity."

"How about we go down there and see what they're up to, Tyler? And leave the three most chaotic people in the house in here to get high on oxygen."

Twilight earned a "Hey! I'm not chaotic!" from Spike, a "Don't you forget it" from Dash and a hysterical laugh from a dizzy Pinkie.

Applejack heard footsteps descending the stairs. "Twi! My savior!" She hollered, happy to be rescued from Rarity's designing. But when Twilight turned the corner she had somebody with her. AJ hoped he wouldn't notice she called her "Twi."

Introductions were made and soon Twilight found herself in the kitchen with Tyler and Applejack, making dinner. They made a huge vat of spaghetti and two bug loafs of garlic bread. Later, the whole eight people were sitting down at the dining room table with multiple conversations going on at once.

Rainbow Dash was sitting on one side of Tyler with Twilight on his other side. She was currently listening in on the eggheads' conversation.

"Did you know that spaghetti is actually from China?" Twilight asked.

"I didn't know that. That's fascinating." Tyler said. Dash didn't know what or where China was, but Twilight, of course, knew everything about Earth.

Dash smiled to herself. These eggheads were perfect for each other.

Twilight felt Tyler's hand slip into hers under the table. She held it back, enjoying the bliss of Tyler big hand linked with hers.

. . .

After dinner Twilight drove Tyler home. "I'll see you at work." She said, happy nothing too chaotic happened that evening.

"I had a great time. Thanks, Olive." Tyler gave her a peck on the cheek before exiting the car.

She sat in her car, watching Tyler walk up the sidewalk and up to his front door, her cheek burning and blushing violently.

As she drove off, she smiled to herself and turned on the radio, positively giddy about everything.

**Oh gawd what have I done?! I am already having major bairn farts with the SpikeDash stuff, so what do I do? I bring in more shipping (with someone you don't even know for that matter) that's what I do! I'm such an idiot. **

**Okay, so this Tyler thing could go one of two ways. I'll let you guys decide. Write a review saying which of the following you think should happen. **

**When Tyler finds out who Twilight and her friends really are, he is really understanding and helps out in the end. If we go this way then we have to deal with the sadness from Twilight when she has to go to back to Equestria.**

**b) (lol at my numbering skills) Whan Tyler finds out who Twilight and her friends are, (he's going to find out either way, deal with it) he is angry that the whole time Twilight was lying to him and he thought they had something special angry sad words blardy blar blar. The downside to this route is having to write about twilight and heartbreak. **

**You get to choose! **

**Anyway, sorry this took so long, but I had this ready forever ago, but Fanfic was being an idiot.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**Author's note: Hey guys, if you're following this story, you've likely noticed how long it takes for chapters to come out, and I'm really sorry for that. I've been experiencing some major writer's block. I mean, I know what's going to happen, I just don't know how to write it, if you know what I mean. I'm writing this note to thank you for sticking with me even when things get dry. Thanks so much, you all mean so much to me!**

**~CheddarAndPretzelCombos**

**(Diana)**

**And without further ado, chapter eight of YIG!**

Rainbow Dash sat in the passenger sea of AJ's truck, her feet propped up on the dashboard and her hand hanging out the window, feeling the gentle waves of air moving along side the truck.

Her foot tapped quickly, not at all in beat of the music playing on the radio. Every so often, she'd run her hands through her hair, then pick at the nail polish on her fingers or bite at her nails; both habits she'd adopted shortly after adopting nails.

AJ soon caught on to Dash's behavior. "You nervous?" She asked.

"Kind of. Are you?" Asked Dash, hoping to find someone who shared her feelings.

"A little."

"But what if they make us go in the air on our first day?"

"They won't. You aren't camera shy, are you?"

"No, of course not. I just don't want to mess up." dash said, her foot tapping growing a little faster.

"Well, you have nothing to worry about, because there's no way they'll put us on the air our first day." Applejack said comfortingly as she pulled her truck into the parking lot.

When they walked in, Brian was waiting for them. "Good news girls, you're going on the air today!" Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a dirty look, who grinned sheepishly.

They followed Brian into the studio room full of bustling people as he explained that they would have plenty of time to prepare by the time five o'clock rolled around and that the hardest part was getting home during the evening traffic.

Later that evening Spike sat on the couch with Rarity and Fluttershy. "Twilight! Pinkie! Hurry up! The news is about to start!"

Pinkie Pie came running in from the kitchen holding a giant bowl of popcorn/ twilight came in ans sat on the couch just as the news started.

Brian appeared on the screen along with Rainbow Dash and AJ, all three of them sitting at a very smart looking desk. "Good evening, Georgia, I'm Brian Grant and we start off this evening's news by introducing our two newest members of the news team, Jacki Smith and Skyler Dash."

They both smiled and gave a little wave.

"Tell us a little bit about yourselves, girls."

Applejack decided to go first. Well," She started in her rich country accent, "I'm a cowgirl, born and raised on an apple farm, and I moved here to Georgia about a week ago with six of my friends, including Sky." She said, jerking her head towards Dash.

"And how long have you known each other?"

"We've known each other for years, since we were just little girls. She's one of my best friends. We're both super competitive, so it's really fun when she's around.

"What about you, Skyler?" Brian asked.

"Hey there, Georgia, I am going to be your meteorologist." Dash started in that voice of hers that occasionally cracked, Spike always thought it was cute when her voice cracked.

"I grew up with parents who were obsessed with weather, so, naturally, I became hooked too. Shortly after graduating I got a job with the weather and have worked with that until coming here with AJ and the rest of our friends.

"And _what is _the story behind that hair?" Asked Brian, who had turned into a reporter.

Dash just grinned. "Why not?"

"Well, it's been great getting to know you girls. Let's get started on the news, shall we?" Brian said.  
"Thanks, Brian." Dash said and got up from the smart-looking desk and walked over to a big graphic map of Georgia. She talked about the weather all throughout Georgia followed by AJ's lead stories.

Soon, the news was over and the two girls came home to their friends, who congratulated them for not humiliating themselves.

"Guys, the commercial's on!" Dash said.

Everyone looked over to the TV and saw Dashie and AJ on the screen. Dash had her head down on the desk in a state of pure boredom while AJ was sorting through a folder of papers.

"Hey Jacki." Dash on the TV said, rolling her head over to look at AJ.

"What?"

"You know what we should do?"

AJ, seeing that she wasn't going to get through her papers anytime soon, put them down and focused on the bored Dash. "What?"

"You know how all other news stations are so boring that you almost fall asleep watching it?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah. Sure." AJ said, pretending to not know where Dash was going with this.

"Well, what if we dared each other to do funny things while doing our news reports?"

AJ the Actor's eyes lit up in glee. "Great idea! But I don't think we're able to come up with many good dares before we run dry." AJ said.

"I know what to do!" Dash, not bored anymore, comically pulled a laptop out of nowhere and the camera angle changed to the computer screen. "We'll start a Facebook page! We can ask people to come up with dares for us to do on the news! Dash typed in the page's name _AppleDash _and clicked on create page.

"Clever name. My favorite food is apples and your last name is Dash!" AJ said, pretending to be surprised for the camera.

"Stay tuned, Georgia, tomorrow Jacki is doing the lead stories after I do her makeup!" An excited Dash said.

AJ added in, "And Sky is doing the weather while doing a handstand!"

The commercial ended and Pinkie Pie burst out laughing. "Are you really going through with this?!"

"Yep, it'll be fun!" Dash said.

**Yay, new chapter. **

**I put AppleDash in there just to make tomColt15 mad. (she doesn't like that ship.) Even if I didn't use it as a ship, I still found it funny.**

**I'll try to get future chapters out faster, because I feel bad making you wait.**

**If everything goes right, I'll see y'all soon. :)**

**-CheddarAndPretzelCombos (Diana)**


	9. Chapter 9 (a)

Happy Nightmare Night!

I just wanted to make a special chapter for you guys, just because Halloween is my favorite holiday and all.

Please favorite, review, and follow! I love you all!

~CheddarAndPretzelCombos (Diana)

Twilight and Tyler sat on the couch with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, watching a movie on a boring nothing-to-do Monday night.

Twilight and Tyler had been sitting rather closely together on the couch for a while, and, in that time, Tyler's arm had sneaked around Twilight's shoulder and had silently found his hand and held it in his lap. When Fluttershy had walked in the living room and found the couple sitting there she blushed and started stammering.

"Oh-I'm...Um, sorry... I-I didn't realize you were in here...I'm sorry... I-I'll just go." She started backing away silently, hiding behind her pink hair.

Twilight used her free hand to usher Fluttershy back to the couch. "Abby, it's fine. Come sit with us.

"Oh... Thank you, Olivia." Fluttershy eased back to the couch, sitting at the edge on the other side so they could have their room.

When Rainbow Dash came in it was the complete opposite. She walked in, not at all caring that Twilight and Tyler were trying to have some time together and plopped herself right down on the couch.

"Hey, guys." She said, pulling her legs up on the couch in Indian-style form.

"Hey, Sky. How have you been?" Tyler asked. Twilight laid her head on his chest, listening close-up to his voice and feeling the vibration of his vocal cords when he talked.

"Fine, thanks. Jack and I have just been looking over some dares on our Facebook page."

"Neat. Did you see the one I posted?"

"No!" Dash said, appalled that she could have missed something so big, "What did you put?" Dash pulled her phone out of her back pocket and began looking though the AppleDash page, her thumb scrolling across her phone.

Tyler didn't bother answering her question, figuring she'd find his comment sooner or later, and changed the subject.

"So, what are you guys doing for Halloween?"

Twilight was very confused at the word she'd never heard before. "For what?"

"Halloween." Tyler repeated, figuring Twilight just misheard him. "It's this Wednesday."

Twilight's mind went blank. _What? Halloween? _Had she somehow missed on an important event on her studies of America back in Equestria? Was Tyler joking for her? What does she say? She didn't want to sound dumb. She didn't want to lie, Tyler was too important to her, and she felt really bad about the things she'd already had to lie about. She didn't know hoe long she sat there with her mind in a state of panic, but she was finally sucked back into the real of her living room when she felt a vibration in her back pocket. She took out her phone and looked at the screen.

1 New Message

From: Rainbow Dash

_Halloween= Nite mare nite_

Twilight's mind suddenly clicked. "Oh! No, we don't have anything planned."

"Well, you do know the library is hosting a Halloween party. We could all go to that."

"You're right. That would be great. What do you think, Abby?" Fluttershy looked up from her phone, obviously just reading the same text from the rainbow-haired girl sitting six inches away.

Fluttershy's eyes were huge, filled with terror. "Uh...I don't know. Halloween isn't my favorite holiday. I don't think I should go."

Tyler tried to convince Fluttershy. "Come on, it would be fun!" Twilight heard her phone vibrate again.

1 new text message

from: Rainbow Dash

I totally jus savd ur a**! U O me big time!

Twilight sent back a _u suck _back to Dash and looked up from her phone to glare at Rainbow, who was conveniently too busy playing Doodle Jump on her phone to see her purple-haired friend's glare.

Tyler had apparently gotten somewhere with Fluttershy during that time. "Well, if it means _that _much to you, of course I'll go to the Halloween Party."

"That's the spirit!" Tyler said with gusto. Twilight turned her attention back to the TV when the conversation had quieted down and after rainbow Dash had replied to her text.

_& dont u 4get it._

"So, what's the plot of this movie?" Twilight said, tilting her head to the movie that Tyler had brought over. They haven't been paying that close of attention to the film ever since Fluttershy had walked in.

"Well," Tyler began. "See that girl right there? The one dressed like a man? She loves that dude right there," he said, pointing to the corner of the screen, "and that guy's father was a pirate, and see that guy right there? The one with the dreadlocks? He used to be captain of _that _ship. He wants his ship back because that's the fastest ship in the world. But the _Pearl _is cursed because the guy who is captain of the ship right now stole a treasure that made you cursed if you stole any of it. And Captain Barbosa had Sparrow, the dreadlocks guy, abandoned on an island, and that's why he isn't cursed. So that chick has the last piece of the cursed treasure and they're out to get her because they need to return every last piece to lift the curse." Tyler finished.

When the the movie was over Tyler went home, saying he had work in the morning and that he needed to get up early. Twilight walked him to his car, wrapping her jacket tightly around her in the chilly wind.

"See you tomorrow." She said.

"Bye." Tyler hugged her and gave her a peck (on the lips this time) before climbing into his car."

Tyler's car drove off and Twilight sprinted up the sidewalk to her house. She flung open the door and slammed it shut, making a loud bang. "Alright everyone, we have two days to pull together some fantastic Halloween costumes!"

LATER

"Okay, girls. Here's the plan. We have two days to come up with decent costumes for the Halloween Party at the library." Twilight paced back and forth in front of the couch, where the rest of the council was meeting. Twilight stopped pacing and looked at her friends. Rarity was vigorously drawing in a yellow notebook and Fluttershy was was trying to sneak glances at the notebook while staying undetected.

Spike put his long legs up on the couch, them stretching across the laps of Dash, AJ, and Pinkie. Rainbow and AJ were trying to push his legs down, but the second they managed to get his legs off, he would just plop them back on their laps. Pinkie Pie was blowing a very big bubble with her gum and began to get excited when the bubble reached it's maximum size and was slapping at Fluttershy's arm, making whimpering noises for her to look at it.

"Guys! Focus! Rarity, you're not making everyone's costumes." Twilight said, putting Rarity's scribbling to cease.

"I think we should make a little competition out of this." Twi said, "I mean, we could make groups of two and we can cast votes for which group wins."

"That's not fair! Rarity will win!" Spike said.

"Not necessarily. Rarity is used to making _pretty things. _Halloween's all about scary." Dash said, seeing her advantage in this thing.

"Okay, who are we partnered with?" Rarity asked.

"Anyone you'd want, I guess. But not me. Tyler and I are already going as pirates. And no sneaking looks at other groups' costumes."

"APPLEJACK!" Pinkie Pie launched herself across Rainbow Dash over to AJ and clung to her arm for dear life.

Rarity gasped loudly and yelled something about a brilliant idea and rushed upstairs.

Rainbow Dash ran upstairs too followed by AJ and Pinkie and Spike, leaving Fluttershy and Twilight alone in the living room.

"Should I go upstairs and try to find a partner?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight nodded and and followed by a somewhat unsure Fluttershy.

Fluttershy stood at the top of the stairs, wondering which room she should try first. Pinkie Pie's room was really noisy with her and AJ brainstorming. Rarity's design room was full if rustling and crashing, but no voices. Suddenly something hit her neck. She put her hand to her jugular and her fingers came back to her eyes with a wet wadded up piece of paper.

"Eww." She looked around for the source of the spitball. There, on Rainbow Dash's door, was a sticky note that definitely wasn't there before. On the note was one word in scrawly handwriting. Fluttershy!

She moved quietly over to Rainbow Dash's door and opened it a crack. "Rainbow Dash?" Suddenly someone grabbed her hand and dragged her inside.

"Fluttershy! I'm so glad I got you. Will you be my partner?" Rainbow Dash asked, in a hushed whisper.

"Oh, Rainbow, I'd love to be your partner! I was scared no body would want me on their team."

"Good. My plan will work perfectly now. We're going to cream the other teams. But we have to be careful for Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Pinkie is a really creative person, so her costume will probably be something to random it could blow us out of the water if we're not careful. And Rarity, well, she's a professional designer. But at least now we know all the teams, we got that on our side. Pinkie and AJ, on the other team, went to their room before even seeing who was with who." Dash said, still whispering.

"Why are you whispering?" Fluttershy asked.

"Because I don't want anyone to hear this. So, here's what I'm thinking...

"Spike, I was afraid someone was going to snatch you up before me! Will you be on my team?"

"Sure, Rarity."

"Good." Rarity was rushing from one end of her design room to the other, pulling fabrics out from their shelves and placing them on the middle table.

"Okay, here's my plan. I'm not usually into competition, but when it comes to something that involves outfit design, I just couldn't resist!"

"Right." Spike said, his eyes following the beautiful girl as she ran across the design room.

"But Rainbow Dash was so _kind _as to point out my biggest flaw in this competition. I _am _only used to making pretty things. So, I figured that I should make them pretty, because that's the only I'm going to pull ahead here. So, here's what I'm thinking...

"AJ, I had this totally-super-duper-awesome idea when Twilight was talking. I figured, what do people like most? Fun, right?" Pinkie Pie asked. Without waiting for an answer, she pressed on, "So, what's more fun than..."

"Great idea, Rainbow Dash, I really like it, I do, but, um, there's one problem. Doesn't it sound kinda scary? I mean, its really nice, but look at that picture you drew! It looks really scary!"

"Fluttershy, that's the point. It's Halloween. Plus, mine's the only one that's going to be scary, not yours. We _are _going for a 'good and bad' theme here."

"Well, I guess so. I just hope you don't end up looking too creepy." Fluttershy said. Dash sighed, her entire point was to be "creepy."

"It'll turn out perfectly. You'll see, Fluttershy."

"I'll dress up in your incredibly girly outfit under one condition." Spike said.

"And what condition is that?" Rarity said.

"Zombies."

"Pardon?"

" I want them zombified."

"How am I supposed to interpret zombies into these?!"

"Alright, here's what we'll do. You get the outfits all ready to your satisfaction, and I'll add the zombie effects."

"Fine." Rarity said, putting on a pout. "Please don't ruin my costumes, Spike."

"I'll make them better."

"Uh-Pinkie? I really like your idea, but does it really have to be that over-the-top girly? Can we sort of grunge it up? Like what if we made them evil?" AJ said.

"Evil? But we're supposed to be good spirits!"

"But what if we changed it to 'bad spirits?'"

"Bad spirit? I guess that's okay. Can they still be pink?"

"How about a mix between black and pink?"

"Okay! Say, Applejack, are you in this to win the competition?"

"Well, yeah. I kind of want to get back at RD for cheating at the Iron Pony Competition."

"But you're in it to have fun, too, right?"

"Of course, Pinkie. We'll have loads of fun.

"You know, Tyler," Twilight said, sitting alone on the couch downstairs while all of her friends were working their hinds off in hopes of winning the competition that Twilight had just made up on the spot. "I have found the fastest possible way to get your friends to do what you want them to do. And have fun at the same time.

"How is that?" Tyler asked, his voice coming through Twilight Sparkle's cell phone.

" A challenge."

Tyler laughed. "Let me guess. You told them who ever made the best costume won."

"Yep. They're all upstairs working in partners to try to impress me. And I get to sit here alone in peace and quiet and drink a margarita.

Tyler laughed again. "Did you also tell them that you're going to _buy _you're costume?"

"Pfft. They don't need to know that.

"Hey, do you think I can judge with you on Wednesday? I'd love to see their costumes." "Sure. And you can ride with us to the library." Twilight kicked off her shoes and reclined in the couch, taking out her hair and letting it fall down her shoulders.

"So, what do you think they're going to make?" Tyler asked. Over at Tyler's house, he also kicked off his shoes and laid down on his couch, listening to Twilight's-or Olivia's as he knows her-voice talk about her predictions.

"Well, Rarity is all about making things pretty. So she likely won't even go the traditional scary route like I know Skyler will. There's no knowing what Dianne will do. You know her, she's to random to predict. But I'm not sure of the teams. If Sky and Rarity are on the same team, they'd probably win, because those two have the best chances of winning. But Rarity probably went for Abby, because those two are best friends. You know, that's what I'm going to do right now. I'm going to see who is with who. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay, Olive. But you really should get to bed soon. It's past eleven."

"Oh, I'll be fine. I'm used to being up late. I used to have a problem with late-night pacing."

"Well, no late-night pacing tonight, okay?"

"Okay. Bye."

"Love ya. Bye" Tyler said and hung up. He started to brush his teeth, but then choked on the toothpaste when he realized what he'd just said. _"love ya?"_

Twilight put her phone in her back pocket and started to go upstairs. Then Tyler's words hit her like a rock. _Love ya._

The next day...

A light tap at the door of Rarity's design room snapped her out of "the zone" and she looked up from her work.

"Come in." Rarity said, hiding the costume she was working on under a piece of fabric. The door opened and Twilight walked in, with her short pirate dress draped over her arm "Twilight, for goodness' sake, you live here! You don't have to knock, you know." Rarity said, putting down a pair of scissors and ribbon that she was levitating with her horn.

Twilight shook her head violently, "Oh, right. Sorry. Anyway, do think you could help me out with my costume?"

"Sure, Twilight. I was just putting the finishing touches on Spike's and my costumes." Rarity said, sounding happy to be working with something new. She ushered Twilight over to the pedestal in the middle of the design room, surrounded by triple mirrors.

Twilight took off the tank top she was wearing and pulled the dress on over her head, then let her skirt fall after the dress was on while Rarity was finding a pincushion and a needle with string.

"So, what are you thinking you want done?" Rarity asked.

"Uh... I don't really know. What do you think?" Twilight asked.

"Hmm. I'll see what I can do." Rarity raised the hem on the dress and stuck some pins in the skirt with her magic.

There was a long stretch of silence.

"So... You made this dress yourself?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

"Sure you did." Rarity said, pulling the store tag off of the dress. Twilight grinned sheepishly and the two went back into silence.

"Twilight, are you okay? You're awfully silent."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"Twilight." Rarity said, sticking another pin into the hem of the dress.

Twilight sighed. "Tyler said he loved me last night."

Rarity gasped. "Oh, what great news, Twilight!"

"That's just it. I'm so unsure. 'cause he just said it before he hung up the phone last night. It wasn't anything big, just a 'bye. Love ya."'

"Oh, I'm sure he meant it, Twilight! Let's just call him and find out!" Rarity levitated her phone off the nearby table and set it in Twilight's hands.

"I don't know. I'll just ask him at work today." Twilight said, trying to give the phone back to Rarity.

"No. You're doing it right now. This is too important!"

"Alright." Twilight said, unsure. She tapped her finger on Tyler's contact image and pressed the speakerphone button, listening silently to the ring drone on and on.

End of Part One

Okay, here's part one of the Halloween Chapter!

Follow to see who wins the Costume Contest, what happens at the party, and what happens Between Tyler and Twilight!

I'll try to get part two of this chapter out this weekend. So, if Monday comes along and

you haven't gotten an e-mail saying I uploaded another chapter, tell me I suck.

Thanks for reading! I love you all!

~CheddarAnd ohnevermindyouguysknowwhoiam imnottypingmyusernameoutagai n!


	10. Chapter 9 (b)

YiG chapter 9b

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Dashie?" Fluttershy said uneasily. She stood on the swivel chair in Dash's room, feeling nervous as her costume was modeled.

"Of course. I've seen Rarity do this a million times," Dash said, pulling a pin from the pin cushion and inserting it into her friend's dress, "Plus, I always dress in style." As if that would make her automatically good at sewing.

"Well, if you want, I could help you out." Said the shy girl standing awkwardly on the swivel chair. Fluttershy silently detected every single flaw in the costume her friend was making, but didn't say anything about them.

"Don't be ridiculous. You've already made mine, you can't make both."

"Well, um, it was just a thought, whatever you want to is fine." Fluttershy said, deciding to wait it out until Rainbow Dash rage-quitted.

. . .

_Ring..._

_ Ring..._

_ Ring..._

After what seemed like eons, Tyler's voice came out of the rhinestone-embedded iPhone.

"Hello?"

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but her voice caught in her throat.

"Hello?" A confused Tyler asked again.

Rarity swooped in to save Twilight by filling the silence. "Tyler, darling, it's Rarity."

"Oh. Hey, Rarity."

"How are you, dear?" She asked as a relieved Twilight put the phone back down on the table. Rarity continued to work on the Halloween dress and chat with an on-speaker Tyler.

"To be honest, not so good." Tyler said after a sigh.

"Oh, no. What happened?" Rarity played dumb in a sympathetic voice as her magic stuck another pin in the hem of her friend's dress.

Twilight kept quiet as Tyler came clean with Rarity, hoping to keep him thinking that the only person hearing him was Rarity.

"Last night Olive and I were talking on the phone."

"Yes?"

"And I told her I had to go because I had to get up early the next day," Rarity started sewing the hem of Twilight's dress, pulling out the pins as she went, "And right before I hung up, I said 'love ya.'"

There was a moment of silence between the two (three). On the other end of the phone, Tyler put his head in his hands.

Rarity finally spoke. "Well, darling, I believe I've failed to see the problem."

Twilight mouthed_ what? _Just as Tyler said the same thing aloud.

"Honestly, is telling your girlfriend that you love her an issue?"

"I don't know! I didn't mean to say it, it 's just something you say when you're on the phone. I didn't even realize I said it until after I hung up. But then I realized that I did love her. But I was scared. Was I moving too fast? Rarity, am I moving too fast?" Twilight's heart warmed in hearing Tyler talking about her like that.

"Alright, calm down, Tyler. Have you talked to Olivia since then?" Rarity asked.

"No. I've just been scared."

"Well, thanks for talking to me about this, Tyler."

"Thanks for listening. Hey, why did you call in the first place?"

"Well," Rarity started. "I have something to confess as well."

"Yeah?"

"You're on speaker." Rarity admitted.

"Olivia?" Tyler guessed.

"Yeah." Twilight finally spoke.

"O!" Tyler called out to his girlfriend by her pet name, "O, I'm so sorry. I didn't want you to think I was moving too fast; I just love being with you and you're the most perfect person I've ever met and-"

"Tyler, it's okay." Twilight interrupted. "I love you too."

. . .

"Hey, Pinkie Pie, how does this look?" Applejack asked, holding up the pleaded mini-skirt.

"Great, AJ! I think we're going to win the whole entire costume contest!" Pinkie Pie said in her bubbly, optimistic voice.

"I just wish I knew what the other teams are doing."

"We don't need to know, because we'll win!" Pinkie said.

"I sure hope we do. Because I'd love to get back at Rainbow Dash for the running of the Leaves."

Pinkie Pie giggled. "That was funny. I can't wait to see the other's costumes.!"

**Author's note: Yep. I suck. I know. I'm just so lazy! I'll want to write, but then my e-mail has other ideas. Because, guess what! PewDiePie uploaded another video! I want to thank everyone for sticking with me even when I'll go AFK for 8bagillion years. I have learned while writing YiG that it sucks to write under pressure. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I've decided to go with another tactic in my writing career. For the rest of my stories will all be uploaded at once, because I feel like I am able to write loads better when I don't feel pressed for time. If you are following me, please don't stop! It's makes me giddy every time I see I have another follower, favorite, or review. I want to thank you all again, I love you guys! **

** And you can thank PerpetualFanboy for dragging me out from under my rock and getting me to finally finish this chapter. Thanks, bro. /)**


	11. Chapter 10

**YiG 10**

"Annnd you're done!" Said Rarity, biting off the last string on Twilight's dress and straitening it out for her in front of the triple mirror.

"Wow, Rarity, thank you so much!" Twilight said in awe, admiring her Halloween costume. Rarity had made several tweaks to her friend's outfit that morning to make it just perfect, fussing on every detail.

"Sooo... What are you going as for Halloween?"

"Twilight!" Rarity scolded, "I simply cannot tell you that!"

"Will you at least tell me who your partner is?"

"I can't do that, either! Wouldn't that be cheating?"

"I made up the rules!" Twilight tried to reason with her. "Please?"

"Well... I guess I-"

The two unicorns suddenly heard a loud groan and a thud in another room, making them both jump.

. . .

"Uugh!" Rainbow groaned in anger and threw the needle and thread across the room. She threw them pretty hard, but they struck the wall without a sound and landed fruitlessly on the ground, making Dash look pathetic.

"How does anyone do this?! It's not physically possible!" She yelled in angst and banged her head on the table, leaving a worried Fluttershy not knowing what to do.

Fluttershy retrieved the needle from the other side of her friend's bedroom and put her hand down on the table where Rainbow's head was coming down, providing a cushion for the skull.

"Dashie, it's alright, I couldn't sew the first time I tried, either. Here, let me help you," the timid girl tied a knot in the end of the string, "okay, now the trick is to know where the needle is at all times." Gentle and petit hands with soft, peach-colored nail polish put the needle into the beat-up hands with multiple Band-aids of Rainbow Dash.

The tomboy picked at her chipped black-and-electric-blue nail polished fingers, unsure what to do.

"Start from the bottom and go up." The hair-thin needle came up from the bottom of the material, barely missing the owner's finger.

"Now pull tight." The student did as the teacher instructed.

"Good. Now go from the top to the bottom right next to where you came up from. And watch your-"

"OW!"

"...Fingers."

"And that's four." Dash muttered, grabbing her fourth Band-Aid from the kit she was keeping handy and wrapped it around her ring finger.

. . .

Twilight hurried off to work a few minutes later, leaving Rarity nothing to do but call in Spike to add his contribution to the costumes.

Spike walked into Rarity's workroom and got strait to work in grunging up the her beautiful costumes. Rarity paced across the workroom, wringing her hands and stealing glances over her friend's shoulder.

_Click, clock._

_ Click, clock._

_ Click, clock._

Spike was getting more and more agitated with Rarity's pacing, her heels reminding of he clock of hooves during late-night pacing. "Rarity, I can't concentrate with you pacing like that! I'm not going to ruin your outfits, okay? I'm improving them!"

"I know, I know!" Rarity sat down on her red velvet couch that distinctly resembled her couch in Ponyville, holding her hands in her lap. Soon there were more noises in the other room, capturing the designer's attention. Spike noticed the ruckus, too and he stopped working. Rarity caught his eye.

"I wish I knew what all that commotion's about. Spike, would you be a dear and go see what's going on? But whatever you do, don't get caught!"

"Fine," he said, "But don't touch the costumes!" Spike rose from his masterpieces and silently opened and closed the door behind him.

. . .

"No, really! You're doing a great job, Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy tried to comfort her rainbow-haired friend after the sixth Band-Aid and during the second temper tantrum.

"Fluttershy, you're too nice. I stink at this. But you're doing all the work! I'm just making things worse; we're gonna loose the competition!"

"It's al-" Fluttershy's eyes retracted and then dilated. "Dash," She whispered, "There's someone outside the door."

Dash was about to hurl the needle at the wall again but stopped and listened hard. Fluttershy was right; there was a barely audible breathing.

Dash opened her window and put a leg up on the sill. "Pretend like you're talking to me." She whispered.

Fluttershy's eyes widened slightly with understanding. "Oh, a-are you ready to try again?" Fluttershy asked the chair as Rainbow dropped out of the window of her second-story bedroom.

"There! Now you're getting the hang of it!" Fluttershy said to the chair as she took charge of her friend's costume, getting more done in eight seconds than Dash had in 45 minutes.

Dash flew around the side of the house to the front door and she sneaked in without a sound. She flew up the stairs, her cautious wing beats next to silent. She spotted Spike standing outside her door, listening to Fluttershy talk to herself. Dash grabbed the air horn from her back pocket and let it loose behind her victim.

. . .

_Click, clock._

_ Click, clock._

_ Click, clock._

Ever since her door closed Rarity had gone back to pacing, worried as ever about her beautiful costumes.

_You really shouldn't worry about like this, Rarity._

_ But it's so nerve-racking, Rarity._

_ Rarity, he's your friend! You should trust him!_

_ But he doesn't know a thing about fashion, Rarity!_

_ Just like you don't know a thing about scary costumes. _

_ He dressed up as a **dragon** last year, Rarity._

_ That's still more experience in scary costumes than you._

_ I know! But what if my costumes are ruined, Rarity?_

_ Halloween isn't just about beauty, Rarity._

_ What harm would there be if I just looked at them, Rarity?_

_ You must not snoop, Rarity._

_ But it's so fun, Rarity!_

_ It isn't your business what he's working on, Rarity._

_ How COULD you say that?! It is very much my business!_

_ But he trusts you to not look at them, Rarity._

_ But-_

_ And loosing a friend's trust is the fastest way to loose a friend... FOREVER!_

_ And what if he's ruining my trust by ruining my beautiful costumes?_

And with that, Rarity banished her conscience and sat down in Spike's chair. Her perfectly manicured fingers with French tips reached out for the purple material when...

**HOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!**

. . .

Spike jumped and let out a scream, falling onto the hallway's floor.

"No cheating!" Rainbow said, putting her arms on her hips and looking down at Spike on the floor. She stepped over him and opened the door to her bedroom. She shut it behind her, daring anyone to cheat again.

. . .

Later that evening, Twilight came home from her shift at the library. Everyone was lounging around the kitchen with nothing to do. AJ and Rainbow were about to leave for the 5 o'clock news. Dash was sitting cross-legged on the counter, stealing handfuls of Rarity's Chex Mix when she wasn't looking. Rarity was leaning against the counter, watching Pinkie catch grapes in her mouth.

"Fluttershy, catch!" Pinkie tossed a grape to Fluttershy, who looked just in time to catch it in her hands and pop it into her mouth.

Twilight walked into the kitchen with a big grin on her face. She was humming to herself and gave Rarity a big hug when she saw her.

"Hi, Rarity! You look pretty today!" Twilight went around the kitchen, giving everyone hugs.

"Applejack! I missed you when I was at work!" Twilight threw her arms around the cowgirl, who stood there stiffly, giving Rarity a questioning look. AJ patted her friend's back awkwardly, Rainbow and Spike snickering.

"Fluttershy, you smell good." Twilight spoke through Fluttershy's pink hair.

"Wow, that looks good." Twilight grabbed the bowl of Chex and left the kitchen to retire to her library with everyone in stunned silence.

Pinkie Pie suddenly burst out laughing. "What was that?!" Everyone starting laughing at Twilight's positively giddy behavior.

"She must've been drunk." Dash said, opening another bag of Chex since the one she was stealing from got stolen.

"No. There's only one explanation for that." Rarity said.

"What?" 5 voices asked in unison.

"It must've been Tyler."

. . .

"Okay, Fluttershy. One hour until show time." Dash said, powdering pale makeup on her friend's face. "You look great."

"Thanks," Fluttershy said, opening her eyes after the powder puff was no longer on her face, "You look...scary."

"Thank you. Did you get the paint I asked for?" Fluttershy pulled the spray paint cans out of her bag and handed them to Dash.

Fluttershy rose her voice over the clanking cans as Rainbow shook them. "Are you sure this is temporary?"

"Yeah, I've spray-painted my wings and even my tail before. Sure, I ended up getting a mild concussion that night, but that's besides the point; it comes out."

"Okay." Fluttershy said, still dubious.

Dash gently grabbed one of her friend's wings and pulled it out to it's extended length, carefully preening it so every feather was layered perfectly. "Spray paint." She ordered, holding out her hand. Fluttershy handed her the can and, with one last shake of the can, Dash started the long task.

. . .

"Spike. I'm sorry I ever doubted you!" Rarity said after seeing her newly modified dress for the first time, "I admit, it's not my usual area of work, but this is a masterpiece nonetheless!"

"Wow, thanks, Rarity. That means a lot, especially coming from you." Spike said, already in costume.

Rarity went behind the little wall and came out a moment later wearing their creation with nude-colored tights and little black heels. She looked beautiful.

"Rarity?"

"What? I should have worn the purple heels, shouldn't I? Oh, these shoes are all wrong!"

"No, no! You look...amazing." Spike said, his infatuation as strong as ever.

"Thank you darling. But I haven't even done my makeup yet!" She said, walking over to her big, lacy boudoir and sat down in front of the dozens of bottles of everything.

. . .

"Okay, my turn!" Dash said, tossing the near-empty bottle of spray paint on her bed and taking off her jacket so she just wore a low-back tank top. Fluttershy got a good look at her wings in the mirror while Rainbow sat down in the chair Fluttershy had recently occupied.

"Wow, Rainbow. They turned out really nice."

"Thanks." She said. Rainbow had already started preening her left wing, and Fluttershy started on the right, gently laying out every one of the cyan feathers out in a row to be painted.

Rainbow handed her the can of spray paint. Could you make it really dark at the bottom and gradually make it lighter until the tips?" The tomboy asked, her vision all laid out for Fluttershy to mimic.

Fluttershy found the art of painting her friend's wings very enjoyable, concentrating hard and watching as the cyan feather changed when the spray passed over it. It was relaxing and therapeutic, a rhythmic motion that repeated itself over and over again.

. . .

Spike laughed. "Rarity, you're doing it all wrong!" He came over to a struggling Rarity who just couldn't find the right colors to match the costume. "Here, let me help you." He grabbed the gel eye liner and smudged a green streak across her cheek. He suddenly realized he had his thumb on the silky, smooth, beautiful face of Rarity. Said face stayed very still, scared to allow someone who knew nothing about makeup apply it for her, but still in his trust.

Spike squatted until he was eye-level with the designer, his long legs folding underneath him and continued to put on her makeup. He was leaned in so close he was feeling her hot breath and smelling her perfumes. More green streaks were applied along with thick eye liner and eye shadow, purposefully smudged and even running down her face.

. . .

_Ding, dong._

"Tyler!" Twilight swung open the door and saw her boyfriend standing on the front porch in his pirate costume. She gave him a big hug and kissed him on the cheek.

"Hey, Olive! Woah, you look hawt!" He said, looking at Sexy Pirate Sparkle in her above-the-knee pirate dress and sword sheath complete with plastic sword. She had knee-high black leather boots and her hair was let down in a long, slightly wavy mess.

"Stop it!" Twilight waved him off and let him into the living room. They sat on the couch awaiting the three teams of contestants.

OKEY DOKIE, WE'RE COMING!" Pinkie Pie hollered down the stairs shortly before the thumps of two pairs of feet were heard coming down the staircase. Twilight fumbled for the camera on her phone as Applejack and Pinkie Pie rounded the corner and showed off their costumes.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack had matching black and pink miniskirts with sideways folds and thick strapped tank tops that cut off at the ribcage, exposing their perfectly flat bellies (Applejack's slightly more tan than Pinkie's.) On their chests were pink sequins lined with black stitching: AJ and PP. They waved pom poms-one pink and one black in each hand. Their faces had dark black eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, and lip stick. Their hair had black streaks dyed in it and was done up in pigtails.

They waved their pom poms, whooping and hollering. Twilight and Tyler laughed and cheered along.

"What does AJ And PP stand for?" Tyler asked. There was an awkward silence in which weight was shifted from foot to foot in thought of a descent explanation. Twilight wanted to yell at her friends for being so stupid to forget their pseudonyms. Suddenly Twilight's phone started ringing.

"Yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay!"

"Hi, Abby."

"Twilight," Fluttershy's soft voice came out of the Twilight's lavender iPhone, "Is it okay if me and Rai-I mean, my partner- come downstairs now?"

"Abby, for Pete's sakes! You live here! You don't have to ask to come downstairs!"

"Oh, sorry. I just was wondering if were going to bother anyone by coming down..."

"You don't have to say sorry."

"Oh...sorry for...saying sorry."

Twilight facepalmed, with a curious Tyler sitting next to her, wondering what was going on. "Yeah, Abby. You can come down, we're ready for you."

"Oh good! Because Rai-I mean, my partner- was getting impatient."

"Well, I wonder who your partner could be!" Sarcasm dripped from the librarian's voice, having caught her shy friend's stuttering. Plus, who else was _that _impatient?

"Okay, we're coming." Fluttershy said. Twilight hung up and relayed the message to her boyfriend and the cheerleaders. There was the sound of a door opening upstairs but there were footsteps descending the staircase. Everyone waited silently but didn't hear a thing until Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash rounded the corner into the living room.

Mystery solved.

Wings.

Fluttershy had wore a beautiful white dress that fell to her knees. It had long sleeves that covered her hands. Her long hair fell down past her shoulders and covered most of her face. There were long strips of silk hanging down the back that flowed when she moved. She wore small white ballerina slippers with a bow on the toes. Her wings completed the costume; painted linen-white and curved around her protectively. An Angel.

Rainbow, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. She wore a smoky black dress that was tattered at the end. The long sleeves shrugged down her shoulders and were ragged and stained. Her hair was pulled to one side and covered one eye, not in a shy way, but in a totally BA way. She wore dark makeup that made her intense magenta eyes just that more intense. She wore black hiking boots with scrapes and scuffs and black knee-highs. Her wings were midnight black with slightly lighter gray tips, in the same position as the other girl's. The alter-ego to the Angel: The Demon.

Twilight would have been angry at the pegasi for being so stupid as to have their wings a part of their costume if they hadn't taken the measures to make them look as fake as possible. Firstly, they were spray painted. Secondly, there were thin wires going from the wings to the hips, like the wings were being stabilized. Lastly, they were very still and didn't look alive at all. Twilight would have been fooled if she didn't know any better.

Fluttershy stood there awkwardly in the middle of the living room, not liking all the attention while Rainbow smirked, enjoying every bit of it.

The compliments soon dyed down and the pegasi took their seats on the couch.

It was soon apparent that Rarity and Spike didn't know they were supposed to come downstairs. The Demon sighed after a while and stomped up the staircase to Rarity's workroom.

. . .

Spike was feeling her breaths. He was smelling her perfume. He was touching her perfect face. He was trying not to get lost in her eyes. He tried to stay focused on her makeup. He all tingly and giddy, being so close to her. She stared into the round mirror of her boudoir. She didn't question anything he did. She kept quiet. She was likely feeling just as tingly as Spike.

Suddenly the door banged open and a Demon Rainbow Dash stood in the doorway. Spike yelped with surprise and fell back on his butt, his long legs splayed out on the floor of the work room. Rarity jumped and gave out a little squeak of surprise.

"We're all waiting for you!"

"You could knock." Rarity said, sounding highly offended.

"Excuse me. I live here." Demonbow said.

"But this is my work room!" Rarity stood up and walked over to the wall of shoes, switching out the black heels on her feet to a pair of dark violet ones.

Rainbow scoffed. "I don't see your name on it. Anyway, we're waiting." Rainbow walked off, leaving the door open. Her feet descended the stairs. Spike counted the number of thumps. _12, 13, 14..._

Rarity stood in front of the mirror, flattening down the tight material on her stomach and fixing the ribbon in the back. "Are you ready, Spike?"

"Yeah, I think so. Are you?"

"I believe so." Rarity said, still in front of the triple mirror.

"Wait, one more thing." Spike walked over to the fashionista. He crouched down to her legs and ran his claw-like fingernails up her tights, making large holes and runs up them.

Tingles shot up Rarity's leg. She stepped back awkwardly and cleared her throat. "A-are you ready now?"

"Yeah." Spike stood up to his full height and walked out the door with his partner.

. . .

Demon Dash sat back down on the couch and crossed her arms.

"Did you see their costumes?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Yup."

"What are they?"

"..."

"Dashie! Tell me! I can't wait any longer!"

"Well, you won't have to." Said a third voice, "the zombie prom king and queen have arrived. Rarity and Spike stood in the living room looking absolutely fabulous.

Rarity stood next to Spike wearing an above-the-knee strapless dress made with several layers of tulle and purple silk. The first few layers of tulle served as volume for the dress and made it delightfully puffy. Next came the purple silk. On top of that was another layer of tulle glittered with sparkles. The dress would have been absolutely beautiful, but it was tattered and ripped. It was stained with dirt and the purple ribbon was askew. Her hair was (at one point) done up in an elaborate bun, showing off every curl of her purple hair. The bun was ruined, though, with strands of hair hanging down away from the rest and the tiara on her head was crooked. Her beautiful makeup was running and smudged, and her whole face had a very green tint to it.

"Get into character, Spike." Rarity hissed in his ear, grabbing his hand and putting it around her, making the team look like high school sweethearts. Rarity flashed her dazzling grin as Twilight took pictures with her phone. Spike wasn't paying much attention. Rarity was so soft.

Spike was in the same condition as Rarity. His once very smart-looking suit was ripped and dirty. His hair gel spiked his hair in odd directions and his face was greenish.

Very zombie-like.

"So, who won?" Pinkie Pie asked as they were walking out the front door.

Twilight closed and locked the door behind her, giving Tyler a look. "I dunno. Who did you like best, Ty?"

. . .

The group of eight took four cars to the public library. Rainbow climbed out of the passenger side of the pastel smart car, still celebrating. He had been going on and on about their victory all the way to the library.

Spike's electric green Mustang pulled into the parking space next to theirs. Rainbow ran over to the passenger side and shouted "CHAMPION!" through cupped hands at Rarity,who was very cross at Twilight's decision on who had the best costume. Rainbow whooped and hollered all the way across the parking lot and even tried to chest-jump Fluttershy, who cried out in pain. She ran over to Twilight, who was holding Tyler's hand, and jumped on her back. "Whoo whoo! Winner!" Twilight nearly crumpled under the sudden weight.

"Sky, calm down! Yes your team won, I was there. And I am very happy for you." The egghead said, jumping suddenly to shake off the hitchhiker on her back.

Rainbow walked into the party next to Fluttershy with gusto, feeling very happy for her recent victory. But as the party dragged on, she found herself getting more and more bored. Twilight ran off with Tyler somewhere, and Fluttershy wanted to hang around Rarity. And Rainbow didn't feel welcome around her for a multitude of reasons. Such being that she didn't knock at the door of the workroom (which she thought was a stupid thing to be angry about) and caught Spike and Rarity (well, she wasn't sire what _exactly _she saw.) Either that, or Rarity was angry that she got yelled at in the face when she opened her car door. Dash assumed it was a combination of both. Either way, she felt it was best to stay away from the prissy girl that night.

Spike, Applejack, and Pinkie were likely the best option to be around during a party. But she wasn't interested in just sitting on the couches and talking. So she found herself alone at the snack table, absentmindedly chewing on a cupcake and silently judging everyone she saw.

_That guy's never gonna amount to anything. Lemme guess Minecraft level:expert? Living in his mom's basement, no doubt._

_ What's her problem?_

_ You sir, need a gym membership. I know McDonald's good, but seriously?!_

_ Alright, you're a slut. Whoops, that's Twi. Sorry._

_ Okay, why does it look like your skin has never seen the sun? Don't go out in the snow, or we'll loose you, Slendy._

Silently judging people entertained her for a period of time, but once she'd called out one too many Halloween sluts, she found herself bored again. She reached out for her fourth cupcake and took a big bite. _These don't even taste that good. _

. . .

Spike left the conversation once it changed from Iron Man to the Grand Galloping Gala and wandered around, looking for someone else he knew. He spotted zombie Rarity and Fluttershy over by the punch. He thought about walking over. But, by the looks of it, they were talking about something fashiony, because Rarity was holding the end of Fluttershy's dress and comparing it with hers. He'd had enough to do with clothes in the past two days to last him 8 lifetimes.

That's when he spotted Demon Dash. She was standing all alone by the snack table, eating a cupcake that she didn't seem to be enjoying at all. He walked over. Getting a close look at her, he saw that she wore dark makeup that made her eyes look much bigger and very pretty. She was wearing her hair differently, too. It look beautiful, pulled over to one side, the spectrum adding color to her face.

"Hi."

"Hey, there." She said. She bopped him on the nose with her cupcake, leaving blue frosting on his nose. He crossed his eyes to look at it, making her laugh. He stuck his tongue out to lick his nose, making her laugh harder. She grabbed a napkin and scrubbed the frosting off his nose.

That's when she noticed his eyes. They were emerald. Soarin's eyes were emerald. She was scrubbing Spike's face with a napkin. She had to scrub the lip gloss off of Soarin's face at the gala. Spike had made a goofy face to see the frosting. So had Soarin. She thought back to when she first saw Spike as a human. Her first thought was _cute. _Soarin was incredibly cute. Demonbow realized she had stopped scrubbing and was staring into Spike's eyes. She smiled sheepishly and looked away. That's just what happened when she was with Soarin.

It was then that Dash had several revelations at once. 1. She missed Soarin so incredibly much. 2. She liked Spike. It was amazing how much he reminded her of her boyfriend. 3. Spike liked her, too. 4. Wait, she can't like Spike! Spike had a crush on Rarity, and she was with Soarin. 5. Love square!

All of this went on inside Rainbow's head at once, but on the outside, she just stood there chewing her cupcake, not showing anything.

"So, what have you been up to?" A blushing Spike asked after his whole body had stopped tingling. The resent situation reminded him so much of the one with Rarity earlier that evening. He had smelled Rainbow's hairspray and toothpaste, he had felt her warm breath when she exhaled. He saw her dark magenta eyes dart up from his nose to his eyes and back again when they lingered just a moment too long.

Rainbow gave him a bored smile. "Gaining weight with all these cupcakes. What about you?"

"Oh, just talking about Iron Man. You've seen that movie, right?" Rainbow shook her head. "Wow, really? That movie's right down your alley! How about you stop eating cupcakes," Spike took Rainbow's fifth cupcake from her hand and started eating it himself, "And we ditch this party and head home. We could watch Iron Man."

Tempting. This party got really boring really fast, and Demonbow was desperate for something to do before she got diabetes. Plus she _was _the Iron Pony. "Sure."

The demon and the zombie walked out the front doors of the library. Spike saw Dashie's hands swinging gently at her sides. He very badly wanted to lace his fingers in hers, entwine his hand with hers. Her hands looked very soft despite the multitude of Band-Aids.

He finally mustered enough courage to pick up her hand and hole it up for the both of them to see. "What happened?" He asked, fingering her Band-Aids, He hand _was _soft.

"Oh, that. I kept poking myself with a needle trying to make this costume."

"Which turned out great, by the way."

"Really? Thanks. I thought you'd be mad the I won. But yours looks pretty awesome, too.

. . .

Spike opened the front door to their house and the two stepped inside. It was dark. Never had Rainbow heard this house so silent either. It was nice. Spike flipped on the lights in the foyer and they took off their jackets.

Spike turned on the giant TV in the living room and found the Iron Man DVD on the shelf of over 100 DVDs. He sat on the couch,waiting for Dash.

And that's when she took off her dress in front of him.

His eyes bugged, not knowing what to think. But then he saw she was wearing shorts and a slim tank top under it.

She kicked off the hiking boots, but left the knee-highs on, leaving herself looking like a very sexy volleyball player. She sat down on the couch next to him and ran her fingers through her hair, getting her hair to part normally.

She sat closer to him than she normally would have: their knees were touching. (Oh Snay-upp!)

The movie was really awesome, but the problem was she couldn't remember how it ended. She remembered her eyes getting heavy during one of the dry scenes and nothing else.

Spike looked over at Dash halfway through the movie to find she'd fallen asleep. He shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what to do, causing Rainbow to slump against his shoulder. He slowly turned and reclined so she was resting on his chest. He twirled a lock of orange hair in his fingers. Her hair was so soft.

She was just so beautiful.

But then he remembered his other crush; she was so beautiful, too. His heart was so torn it hurt worse than ever before.

But he was so comfortable.

And Rainbow slept so soundly.

_Why let yourself be so worried at a time where things are so perfect?_

It was then that Spike finally let his heavy eyes close, and he was soon asleep.

. . .

Well, the electric green Mustang was gone from the parking lot and the party-goers couldn't find Spike or Rainbow Dash anywhere.

Either they were both abducted and their car was stolen, or they went home. Twilight thought it was safe to assume the latter.

After dropping Tyler off in her purple mini cooper, Twilight was the last one home. She opened the door and stepped into the foyer. And promptly ran into Rarity's back.

"What are all you doing here standing in the middle of the foyer?" Twilight asked, unclipping her sheath and taking off the uncomfortable sword.

Four girls sushed her at once and pointed into the living room. Twilight couldn't believe her eyes. Spike and Rainbow Dash lay on the couch, sound asleep. Rainbow lay on Spike's chest, her ear pressed against it. Spike had one hand hanging off the couch, still holding the TV remote, and his other hand was on Dashie's back. Both his hand and Dash rose up and down with Spike's breathing.

Twilight d'awwwed and was again shushed. Pinkie Pie pulled out her bright pink iPhone and took a picture.

...But the flash was on.

Spike's eyes fluttered open and first noticed the five girls staring at him. Then he noticed Rainbow Dash was still asleep on his chest. He blushed beet red and stuttered awkward for an explanation.

"I- we...she-we were- it's just..." Spike carefully lifted Rainbow up enough so he could slip out from under her.

Everyone D'aww'd making him blush again.

"What should I do? Should I wake her up?"

5 "No!"s rang out at once.

"Have you seen Rainbow when she's been woken up?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"She's like a manticore!" Twilight said, "It's not pretty."

"I think it's best we just leave her be. She'll be fine sleeping on a couch for one night. She can even sleep in a tree after all." Applejack said.

Everyone went upstairs and within fifteen minutes all was quiet, everyone gone to bed after a big day. Only then did Rainbow Dash open an eye and chuckle to herself, complimenting her great acting skills.

What really happened was that Rainbow woke up when the DVD player had shut itself off and the TV sat there, glowing bright blue. She opened her eyes and blinked at the harsh blue in pain. She wouldn't be able to sleep like that. She also found herself laying quite comfortably on Spike's chest, listening to his heartbeats. She grabbed the remote from his hand and turned the TV off.

She thought about going upstairs to her own bed, but Spike was just so comfortable. And it was cozy. She laid her head back down and listened to his breathing. She was about to doze off again, but heard the front door open. She pretended to be asleep and let Spike take the embarrassment when he woke up.

**Omahgawd so much shipping!**

** Well, howdy guys! Good to see all y'all again! I'm trying my best to get chapters out more often as one of my new year's resolutions! I'd say it's going pretty well so far, considering this is my longest chapter yet and I got it out in...What? 2 weeks? Not bad. I hope you all enjoyed.**

** Whale. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy won the costume contest. (was there EVER any doubt?) I tried to put a lot of shipping in here, because I've finally decided on what I'm doing with it. Yay.**

** Just a few quick things. That one part at the party where Rainbow has flashbacks to Soarin can only be fully understood if you read my other fic, called The Best Night Ever With A Baseball Bat. (you've heard me talk about that one before.) And I TOTALLY wasn't foreshadowing anything there or anything like that. Pfft, no. (I'm lying)**

** Also, WHY ISN'T CHEX IN THE DICTIONARY YET?! What is wrong with you, people?! Unamused Diana is not amused.**

** I was reading through this and the past few chapters and I realized how much I talk about the stairs. What's with that? I dunno. I guess I just like stairs...**

** Anyway, thanks for reading. I luv u all! **

** ~CheddarAndPretzelCombos**


	12. Chapter 11- the Letters

**The letters**

**You all know the title of this fiction. A Year in Georgia and Letters to Celestia. During early development for this story, when it was just scribbles on a Post-It and random thoughts jotted down in a notebook, I figured writing letters to Celestia would be the easiest part, considering all it would need to include is what they learned about humans and such. The opposite is true. Writing the actual story for this has been the easy part and I have been putting off the whole concept of letters for many, many chapters. Writing lessons about friendship is easy. Writing lessons on the daily routine of humans and their advanced society- noticeably less easy.**

** Here's your proof. Thinking right off the bat in this improv author's note, I'll right a letter to Celestia about friendship.**

** _Dear Princess Luna, (You're better than Celestia) _**

_** I have learned over the years of being in the prison society likes to call school, that it is important to pick your fights. Sometimes it is really important to make yourself heard in situations that involve your future. But sometimes, when the argument isn't really about you, you should just back away slowly. Honestly, nobody cares about what you have to say, in the first place! So when you feel tension in the air, just excuse yourself to the bathroom or say you forgot your lucky bra in your last class, and don't stir any gossip and/or rumors up. Because girls are the most evil creatures to stick their fake tanned faces into evolution.**_

_** Your loyal subject, **_

_** Clementine (my OC)**_

** Do you see what I'm saying? (They need to put that letter in an episode, guys, because that single paragraph is the best piece of literature the world has yet to experience.) Anyway, this author's note is getting way to long, so I'll get to the point.**

** I have carefully thought out each character's persona, and have given deep thought on what they would write to their princess about. What would they like or dislike about human society? What would they want trending in Equestria? Stuff like that. (Lyra seriously needs to be in this fiction.) **

** You may notice there are only five letters here. Spike's letter was written towards the beginning of the story. _But that's still one person missing, Clementine. And you're OC's name is cliché. _Shutup about my OC. And I'm getting to that. Someone's letter isn't in that chapter. *cough cough Rainbow Dash* And I'm totally not leaving that letter for the ending or anything like that. Hehe. (I'm lying.) **

** So, without further ado, I am dedicating an entire chapter to letters.**

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have always known that there is a way to turn a job into a game; and that it makes the job loads more manageable. (My little sister Applebloom taught me that.) But being in Atlanta has also taught me that the games you play can also lift the spirits of of more people than just the workers. Allow me to elaborate.

Rainbow Dash and I work together in Atlanta's lead newsroom. I am in charge of most of the lead stories and fluff pieces while Rainbow does the weather.

She makes a great forecaster, by the way. She's never wrong. Once she refused to come into work because she'd predicted a doosey of a storm to come that evening, even though all the station's Doppler radar doohickeys said otherwise. She refused to let me go to work, too, and guarded the door all evening. Sure enough, Dash was right. The clouds came rolling in and we had several inches of water within the next few hours. And guess what happened to the studio? The winds were so mighty strong that a huge tree branch took down their satellite and smashed three windows. I wish you could have seen Rainbow's smug face when she walked in the newsroom the next morning. Nobody's questioned her weather-predicting abilities since.

I guess I do a mighty good job as a newscaster, too. I have plenty of fans and don't look too shabby on camera.

Anywho, the people at the news station say that we've made a really big impact on Atlanta. My co-worker, Brian says that the news room has really transformed since Rainbow and I had the idea to dare each other to do certain things while on the air, just to spice things up. We even started a Facebook page-which I highly recommend as a new trend in Equestria- to let the people of Atlanta choose what dares we do. For example, once Dash had to give her weather report while doing a handstand. I had to give my report while Rainbow Dash played sound effects on her laptop. (I can't tell you how many times I was Rick Roll'd that day.) Rainbow had to talk about a cold front that was coming while on a pogo stick and I had to talk about a house fire on the south side of town while getting cream pies to the face.

My favorite kinds of dare is the kind Rainbow and I have to do together. Once, we got dared to trade hairstyles. That's right. I had rainbow hair for two weeks. I thought it was a might fun, but Dash could barely handle it.

I could swear I heard crying coming from her bedroom when she went blonde. I could barely recognize myself in those two weeks. And do you know how hard it is to call someone "Rainbow" when there's nothing rainbow about them? Even our friends would get us mixed up. That was my favorite dare, by far.

But I think Rainbow Dash's favorite was when we dressed each other for work. She had painted my nails black, dyed black streaks in my hair, and put black lipstick and and eye makeup on me. I had to wear black skinny jeans with chains with black high tops and a black leather jacket.

She seemed pretty happy with what she made me wear, but I got her back pretty good with the clothes from Pinkie's room. I found a pink tutu and plastic tiara to put on her head. I made her wear pink heels and pink tights to go under the tutu. By the time I was done, Dash was covered in so many shades of pink, it looked like a Bazooka factory had exploded on her.

It felt real good to give people something to look forward to every weeknight at five when we make complete fools of ourselves. It's fun for everyone and it brings something interesting in what can be a really dull life for some.

Your favorite subject,

Applejack

Dear Princess Celestia,

I read a book today. Don't you just love that sentence? What a great way to start off a letter. Anyway, I know I start off a lot of letters like this, but this was an astonishing piece of literature. I know I love all books, but I really mean it this time. This was the most amazing piece of fiction I have ever read. It's by this wonderful lady named Susanne Collins; it's called The Hunger Games. I know I think every book is amazing, but this one really takes the cake. I mean, this book puts the Daring Doo series to shame! The authors of America never cease to impress me. It is my strong suggestion that human literature should be brought to Equestria and should be mandatory reading material for everypony.

I can give you a book report if you'd like, and I'd be more than happy to send you the book itself! Even though I'm more into non-fiction, I always enjoy a descent novel. I love books about alternate societies, but there's really something about this book that I'm surprised that I would enjoy. It's gory. It's about human children killing other human children. I feel somewhat naughty enjoying such a book, but my...um...co-worker said that people all around the world are going crazy over this series. I'm trying to get all the other elements to read it as well, but when I mentioned it was really gory and about killing, Pinkie Pie declined and Rarity "refused to partake in something so crude and barbaric."

I'm going to have to cut this letter short, though, because I just _have _to get Rainbow Dash to read this. Plus, I am anxious to start the next book in the series.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

Dear Princess Celestia,

Hiya, Princess! It's Pinkie! I want to thank you for the super-awesome amazing pink slug bug! It's the funnest car ever because I get to slug someone every time I see my own car! I always win c:

Annnd I get to take my super-awesome amazing pink slug bug to where I work every week day from 9-5. Guess where I work! Guess!

Well, I couldn't hear your guess, but if you guessed that I work at a bakery...you're wrong. Radio show host?...no. Official professional party planner for all parties? Guess again. (Actually, that sounds really fun) but I work where there's a super-awesome fantastic party every day and I don't even have to coordinate it. It's called...

**An Amusement park!**

My boss-man named Jerry really likes me so he let me be in charge of a sweets stand in the most popular part of the park! It's right by the giant bark swing; the most popular ride of all. My stand sells wonderful goodies, like funnel cakes and slushies and giant pretzels and popcorn and soda and it's all so good! People really like my stand because there's never a long line. I 'm so speedy fast at getting people what they want. ('Cuz I work at Sugarcube Corner, you know.)

I even get to go play with all the kids when they're aren't any customers. It's super fun! We draw with chalk on the sidewalks and jump rope and I hand out stickers. I make so many new friends every day! It's the perfect job! And to add to my popularity, I heard one of the moms say that the kids love me because of the way I look. So I'm liked more because I'm young and bubbly and I'm not old and cranky and scary-looking like some of the other stand people.

I'm okay with this.

One Saturday I took all our friends to my amusement park as a special treat. We all had so much fun! Everybody loved the super fast rides. I especially love it right as you're going down a really big hill and everybody puts their hands up in the air and screams on the way down and the wind goes really fast through your hair and the camera takes your picture and you get to see the goofy look on your face afterwards!

We also had a contest to see how many times we could go on the super-fast-dizz-a-riffic-spinny ride. Most of us went on, even though Rarity "refuses to take part in an act so crude." Rainbow said that she won, but I think she had an unfair advantage with her practice on the dizz-a-tron at her Wonderbolt Academy. I was going to say something, but she had a funny look on her face. And then she puked into a trashcan.

We didn't go on that ride any more that day.

My favorite rides are the fast roller coasters. AJ and Dashie had the most fun on the ride where you shoot at the targets as the boat thingy goes by and then you see who had the most points at the end. Fluttershy liked the water rides and Rarity loved the gift shops. And I think Twilight had more fun reading the warnings and safety procedures then on the rides. -_-

Anyway, what was this letter supposed to be about? I can't remember.

Your faithful subject,

Pinkie Pie

Dear Princess Celestia,

Hi, there. It's Fluttershy. How have my animals been doing? Seeing what the animals are like in America just makes me miss my pets even more. I really wish I was allowed to bring Angel with me to Georgia. Did you know Rainbow Dash sneaked Tank here in her saddlebags? She keeps him in a big aquarium in her room. Oh no! Please don't tell her I told you. I wouldn't want her to get in trouble! Because then she'd be angry at me.

Anyway, I just wanted to write to you about the animals in America. I work at Atlanta's zoo and was introduced to a horrible concept. Extinction. Up until a few days ago, I haven't heard of that word. Have you heard it before? Extinction is when every animal in an entire species dies out. Can you imagine? An entire species... wiped out. I was very distraught that day, to say the least. Why would people want to kill so many animals?

I don't approve of the zoo I work in, either. The enclosures are so small, the animals are barely able to move around. I can understand that some animals are in the zoo because they're sick or in rehab, but then they're kept there! Some animals are even bred in captivity.

One day, when I was feeling especially sorry for the animals, I decided to go in the lion's cage to comfort him. Normally, we zookeepers can't go in the cages unless the animal's in the other section and it can't get to us, but I felt the need to make an exception. I got the keys from the supplies building and unlocked the padlock and opened the big door to the lion's cage. The big male lion, who was laying lazily in a patch of dirt, perked up at the sound of his door opened.

He watched me close the door behind me and walk over to him.

"Hi, Mister Lion. Can I pet you?" I asked, squatting so I was eye-level with him and held out my hand. He sniffed it and gave it a lick. He seemed okay with me here, so I reached my hand out further, past his muzzle to his mane.

"HEY, LADY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THAT CAGE?!" Shocked, I looked up at the source of the voice. There was a little boy sitting on the railing, looking down in the cage.

The once calm lion was startled. And he suddenly wasn't so okay with me in his cage. He started growling deep down in his throat. I started shushing and stroking his mane rhythmically. A few scary seconds passed by in which I managed to calm the lion back down with some coaxing. After he'd laid his head back down, I looked back up at the boy, who looked very guilty. I put a finger to my lips and continued to stroke Mister Lion's mane.

Soon, more and more people gathered around the cage, astonished that I was sitting there next to a lion. I talked to him to keep him calm, just murmuring in his ear so nobody else could hear.

"You're so handsome. And your coat's really soft. It looks a lot like mine did when I was a pony. I've never met a lion before, but I have met a griffin. She wasn't nice at all. But you're not like her, you're the sweetest thing ever. You're my favorite animal in the zoo." The lion groaned in pleasure and stretched himself out on the patch of dirt and rested his big head in my lap. (D'awww!)

I could have sat there next to Mister Lion all day, but, sadly, my moment of bliss soon ended. The head zookeeper soon started wondering why the lion was getting so much attention and made his way over. He pushed his way through the crowd and saw me sitting there, stroking the lion from his big all the way down his back.

I got yelled at. A lot. He had run over to the door and yanked it open, yelling for me to get the hell out of there. He locked the cage door again and grabbed me by the arm, practically dragging me into his office. He may have well thrown me into a chair and slammed his door shut. He yelled at me for a long time. Even when I was crying so hard I was shaking, he kept yelling.

He went on and on about what I could have possibly been thinking going in there and that the cages are there for a reason. He said that the safety of all the zoo keepers was very important to him and he asked me if I knew what could have happened to me if the lion was in a bad mood. I knew he was scolding me for my own good, but he just didn't understand. I had it under control. Nothing was going to happen.

He left for a few minutes so I could stop crying. I wiped at my tears and sat in the hard chair. I was just trying to comfort the lion. I could feel his anxiety to get out every day and I felt so sorry for him. I had stopped crying, but the moment he walked back in the room and I saw his face tears were back in my eyes.

He told me to go home for the rest of the day, and that there'd better not be any slip-ups tomorrow or any other day for that matter. I nodded, unable to speak, or even look him in the eyes. As I walked out of the office, I managed to choke out a "Sorry."

I went out into the parking lot and went around the parking lot for ten minutes looking for m car before realizing that Rainbow Dash had driven me to work that day. I sat down on the edge of the lot with my back against a chain-link fence and pulled my phone out of my purse.

She answered on the third ring. "Hey, Fluttershy."

I drew in a shaky breath. "Rainbow. Umm, if you're not too busy... You're not busy are you?" I sniffed.

"No, I'm not doing anything. Shy, are you okay? You sound like you've been crying." There was a muffled explosion in the background and a deep voice saying "GAME OVER!" on the other end of the phone.

"I'm fine." I answered. "I just, um, had a bad day and my boss wants me to go home early."

There was a rustling on the other end of the phone as Rainbow got out of a bean bag and started walking towards the garage. "Go home early? Why?"

"I...um, broke a rule."

"What happened?" Dash's voice was growing with slight concern.

"I... went in the lion enclosure."

There was the sound of the garage door opening. "...With the lion."

"Yes."

Dash wasn't sure how to react to that, I could tell. "And you're crying because your boss yelled at you?"

"Yeah." Rainbow's motorcycle roared to life and purred idly, waiting to be driven.

"How much did he yell at you?"

"Well, a lot." I sniffed.

"Okay, I'll be there in ten seconds flat."

"Thanks."

"I'm gonna give that boss of yours a piece of my mind."

"Dash, n-"

_Click._

Ten seconds (actually six and a half minutes) later, a cyan crotch rocket with a rainbow-haired rider zoomed into the lot. Rainbow pulled up to where I sat against the chain-link fence and took off her helmet. She gave me a sad smile and I smiled back, wiping away the last of my tears. Dash sat down next to me and gave me a big hug. I hugged her back.

All I could think about during that hug was when Rainbow was in the exact same position as I was: when she got bitterly neglected at the news station. I had comforted her when she was in tears on the couch and now she was returning the favor. I could only think of one word in that instant. Loyalty.

"Now, tell me what's going on."

I told her what happened. When I was done, she gave me another hug and stood up. She grabbed my hand and helped me too my feet. She handed me the spare bike helmet.

"Stay here. I'll be right back." She said, pointing to her bike. She started walking towards the zoo.

"Dash, no! Where are you going?"

"I already told you. I'm gonna go give that boss a piece of my mind!"

"No, you don't have to do that. Let's just go home." But Dash didn't hear me. She slipped in through a hole in the gates, not wanting to pay to get in. The moment she disappeared, I put down the motorcycle helmet and ran over to the gate, looking through the hole in the gate.

Dash walked up to the office and was about to bang on the door, but she didn't have to. She spotted the head zookeeper and jogged over to him.

"Hey!"

My boss looked startled and recognition dawned on his face. "You're Skyler Dash, from the news!"

Dash rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter who I am. I'm here becau-"

"Are you doing a story on what happened today? Well, I'm not sure who told you about that, but I'm afraid I won't be answering any of your questions right-"

"I'm here on personal business, actually." She quipped, shutting him up, "My friend Abigail told me how much you bit her head off after you found her in that cage."

"Well-I-you see- it was for her safety-" Dash was eye-level with my boss, and she glared at him hard with her magenta eyes, which seemed to turn a fiery red.

"I don't want to hear it! You've known her for months! You know how fragile she is, and I'm having trouble comprehending how you could have possibly been so hard and cruel to someone like Abby."

Rainbow spent the next few moments chewing him out, saying that I had it under control and that she's better not hear of anything else like this happening ever again. She cursed a lot, too. She said things that I'm positive would get me sent to the moon if I included them in this letter.

Dash soon was able to choke an apology out of him. Looking satisfied, she walked calmly away. I ran back to the bike and put on the helmet, pretending to have been there the whole time.

She smiled smugly. "You won't be having any more problems with him.

When we got home, I sat down on the couch and Rainbow went into the kitchen. She came back a couple minutes later holding two mugs of steaming coffee. I accepted mine, and I smiled at her. It was just like the time she'd some home from the news station, rejected by Brian.

"Thanks."

Dash sat down next to me. "I don't have to be at the station until five," She started, "What do you want to do today?"

I took a sip of the coffee. "I have a few ideas," I said, thinking about the little park we went to when Dash was feeling low.

Wow, this turned out to be a pretty long letter, I hope you don't mind, Princess. I just really needed to get that off my chest. Dash is the only one who knows about that day. As a concluding statement, I really, really, really, really, don't want zoos in Equestria. Animals deserve freedom. Promise there won't be any zoos?

Love,

Fluttershy

Dear Princess Celestia,

Ooh! I remember! Please put amusement parks in Equestria. :) Kthxbai.

Love,

Pinkie Pie

Dear Princess Celestia,

Do you know what's adorable? Young love is adorable. (of course, the couple isn't that young in my eyes, because she's only four months younger than me. But in your eyes, well... I'm not calling you old or anything, it's just that you're the immortal goddess of the sun.)

Your prized student, Twilight Sparkle has found herself a boyfriend. And it's adorable.

I do not know if she's already written to you about this or not, but I hope I am the first one to tell you. It's so fun watching that couple swoon over each other, and Twilight is up to her neck in puppy-love. I'm so happy for Twilight, and I'm sure this little relationship is going to go somewhere. But I am worried for Twi. What will happen once our year here is over? She'll have to leave Tyler.

She's also told me that she feels simply awful every time she has to lie to him about where she's from or who she is. I guess we'll just have to wait this out and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

Until next time,

Rarity-ships-Twiler.


	13. Chapter 12

** What goes on in the mind of characters not mentioned very often? What's going on with the others while the main characters are solving their own problems? That's just it; we don't know. I don't know if this is just me or if I share this problem with other writers, but I have a tendency to write only in the point of view of my favorite pony. I just love Rainbow Dash so much! This is a bad problem to have, for it lacks variety and readers only get to see what goes on in the mind of her. I've been trying recently to expand on P.O.V. by writing letters in Chapter 11, and will continue to try in present and future chapters. So, for the sake of you readers, this chapter contains minimum about of Rainbow P.O.V. You're welcome.**

** We left off on anything that had to do with Rarity a million and a half years ago in chapter six, where she was having Rainbow be her model. **

She stood in the doorway of _Alexandria's_, hands on hips. The sight of all the dresses was marveling. There were over two dozen just in one corner, all elegant, white, and pristine. Some were hung with perfection on the racks, while others, the favorites, took shape on manikins. This is what she loved most about dressmaking. Not the beginning of a creation, where it was just scribbles on a piece of paper in her notebook; not when the main hem is completed and the entire dress is brought together in that one moment; not when hours are spent fussing on every detail. Her favorite part of dressmaking was seeing how far she'd come.

Looking out on all the dresses, she remembered how she'd slaved over each one, recalling sweet memories, and feeling that sweet pride that swelled up inside her. She had made this. It was her. Nobody else. She'd come so far. And she'd never forget the beginning of the sweet and marvelous journey; the first day of her adventure.

. . .

Rainbow had complained about being a model for a decent 45 minutes. Rarity was starting to get fed up with it.

"I'm hungryyyyyyy!" Dash whined, slapping her arms at her sides like an agitated penguin.

"My goodness, Rainbow Dash! You're acting like a child! Hold still! I'm almost done." She stuck another pin in the back of the dress, "There. I'm done with you. Now go to your room where you'll be out of my way."

Rainbow wiggled out of the crude dress that was only just taking form, "But Mama! I'm hungry!" She said in a five-year-olds voice.

Rarity sighed and started picking up the mess that she'd made, "Fine." Rainbow ran out of the room and came back a moment later from the pantry, holding a can of Easy Cheese. She went up to her room without another word. Rarity smiled to herself. She as almost envious of Rainbow's spunk. Almost.

For days, Rarity stayed cooped up in her workroom and perfected the wedding dress. She would loose track of time and jump with a start when there was a knock on the door. Usually it was either Pinkie Pie or Applejack. They'd come in with a tray of food and set it on the end table.

"Rarity, you didn't come down to breakfast/lunch/dinner so I brought you a little something." Rarity would be snapped out of her work, only just then realizing just how hungry she was. She'd sit down on her red velvet couch and eat the food and apologize for not making it to the dining room. They'd soon leave with the tray and Rarity would go back to work, only stopping to go to bed when she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.

This became the routine. Wake up, work, eat, sleep. It was grueling, but it was worth it. The six remaining friends were very surprised to hear footsteps coming down the stairs after such a long stretch of silence. Rarity peeked her head into the game room, where her model was playing a game on the computer. She stepped in with the large piece of white material slung over her forearm.

"Rainbow?" Rainbow let out a yelp of surprise and nearly fell off the swivel chair. She turned around to Rarity, holding her chest.

"Don't do that!" Behind her, on the monitor, the computer got full of static and an annoying beeping sound started. Rainbow cringed and turned back around to face the monitor, "You scared me Rarity!" Rainbow started running for her life on the computer.

"Terribly sorry, Rainbow. But, are you busy?" Rainbow's attempts to run were futile, for a blank-faced man appeared right in front of the monitor and the game went back to the start screen.

Rainbow swiveled to face Rarity once again. "No, I'm not. Can I help you?"

Rarity ruffled the dress slung over her arm in response.

Rainbow sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with. She exited out of the game, revealing her wallpaper, a group shot of the seven of them in the park. Scratch that. Only six of them were in the picture. Rarity wasn't there.

Rainbow pushed herself away from the computer desk and waited in the doorway for her purple-haired friend. "Rarity, you coming?"

"When was this picture taken?" She asked, her eyes glued to the six smiling faces, hugging each other on what looked like a simply beautiful day. The sun was shining and the grass was a brilliant shade of green. The picture was perfect. But Rarity was left out.

"Yesterday," Rainbow replied, "you were working, and we really didn't want to disturb you. It wasn't that fun, really," she lied, "all we did was have a picnic lunch and swing on the swing sets. You didn't miss out on much, Rare."

Rainbow was wrong. She did miss out. "I do love picnics," she sighed. Rarity turned to face her pegasus friend, "I've been spending too much time away from you guys. I swear on this dress," Rarity held up her right arm, "that the moment I'm hired, we'll all go out have fun together."

"Sounds good," Rainbow said, giving the dressmaker a side hug, "now let's go see how well that dress goes with rainbows."

Rarity pushed a somewhat resistant behind the changing wall thingy. She draped the dress over the top and left the workroom. She ran down the stairs in a very un-ladylike fashion and gathered up her friends, the bubbly anxiety she got before presenting one of her works starting in her stomach.

"Girls! Could you come into the living room, please?" The elements drifted from different places in the house to sit on the big L-shaped couch.

"Good to see you're alive," Twilight joked.

Rarity gave a small smile. "As you all know," she addressed everyone, "I have been working on a very big project lately-a wedding dress- that will hopefully get me hired at Atlanta's most popular wedding dress shop!" she paused, looking out over her crowd, "and I'm pleased to tell you that said project is one hundred percent complete, and my model will be down here to show you it as soon as we've found her the perfect pair of shoes."

"Hey, where's Rainbow Dash?" Applejack asked, who had done the math and realized the living room was one element short.

Pinkie snorted. "Are you saying Dashie is your model, Rarity?" She started giggling, finding the concept hilarious.

"Now, Pinkie. Just because Rainbow doesn't dress quite as elegantly as some other girls does not mean that she won't be graced into a beautiful flower in my dress. And speaking of which, I'm going to go check on her now. Please, just stay put, and I'll be back momentarily."

Rarity climbed the stairs and opened the door to her workroom. "Rainbow? Are you done, dear?"

"Isn't there someone else who could model for you, Rarity? Rainbow asked from behind the wall.

"Don't be ridiculous! That dress is fitted to your exact measurements!"

"What about Applejack? We're almost the same height! It'll fit her!"

"Rainbow Dash. I am not going to argue with you about this any longer. Come on out from behind there and let's have a look-see."

"It's just that..." Rainbow trailed off.

"Oh. I see what's going on here. Is the Great Rainbow Dash afraid?"

"No! I just...do not like dresses!"

Rarity sighed and rolled her eyes. She grabbed her rainbow-haired friend and dragged her out from behind the wall. Suddenly, Rarity gasped and let go of her arm.

"What?" Dash asked, her face stricken with horror.

Rarity's eyes got misty. "You're just...so beautiful." She fanned her face with a hand and blinked back tears that threatened to spill over.

Rainbow just rolled her eyes.

Half an hour later, Rainbow had her hair done up in an elaborate bun, she wore makeup that rose her cheekbones, and Rarity had sound her the perfect pair of heels. Rarity had wanted to paint her friend's nails in French tips, but they were too short. The problem was solved with false nails, which drove Rainbow crazy.

Rarity exhaled deeply and fluffed the dress once more. "Are you ready?" A simple nod was her answer.

"Okay, let's go." Rarity took Rainbow's hand and led her down the fourteen stairs to the ground floor, helping her balance on the white heels.

"Stay here," Rarity ordered before rounding the corner to the living room, "ladies and gentle_man_, allow me to present the very first of my sure-to-be-successful line of wedding dresses and my lovely model, Miss Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow stepped into the living room after the fabulous intro and the audience gasped and gushed all over the dress. Rainbow's face turned beet red and she crossed her arms.

Simple white straps laid lightly on her tan, smooth shoulders. The heart-shaped top was covered with pearl beads and delicate flowers. The brilliant white material was tight until below the hips, showing off every curve of the athletic girl's skinny body. Then the brilliant white fanned out, creased perfectly and dancing along the ground. A large V in the back showed tan skin before reaching a long train. Rainbow was already tall, but the heels made her legs seem even longer.

"This is it." Rarity stood next to Rainbow Dash in the middle of a crowded mall. They both looked up and the store's name. _Alexandria's._

"Let's go in." Rainbow walked towards the store's glass doors. She looked back several paces later to see Rarity hadn't moved an inch.

"Hang on. I just want to cherish this moment. I have a good feeling about this." Rarity stared up at the pretty cursive font. Rainbow stood there next to her for a minute longer, tapping her foot.

Rarity took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do this." Rarity opened the glass door and stepped inside. The girls were greeted by a hundred brilliant wedding dresses. Rarity marveled at the sight, her mouth agape.

"There. Are. No. Words." She said. Rainbow snickered.

"Hello, girls! Is there anything I can do for you?" The two were greeted by a small lady with a big smile. She practically skipped over to them and shook their hands eagerly. For such a small woman, she had a lot of energy. (If you know a certain person named Kelly Ripa, you have a good idea of what she's like.)

"Hello. Are you Alexandria?" Rarity asked, still shaking hands.

The lady seemed flabbergasted. "Oh, I should think not! Such a boring name. Please, call me Allie."

"A-Allie. I am Rarity. I called last week for a job?"

"Oh, oh yes! I've been looking forward to meeting you! Ever since you asked I couldn't wait to see what you'd whip up!" Allie clapped her hands twice from excitement.

"I've been looking forward to this day as well. Allie, this is my good friend, Skyler, and she'll be modeling my dress for us." Rarity ruffled the plastic case draped over her arm.

"Ooh, ooh! Is that it? I would love to see it!" Allie clapped again.

Rainbow held up the hanger as Rarity unzipped the plastic. Allie marveled and was positively eccentric at the sight.

"So beautiful! You, Miss Rarity, have some talent!" Allie felt the silky material with petit hands.

"Thank you very much, Miss Allie. That means a lot, coming from you," Rarity then directed her attention to Rainbow, "Why don't you go and put this on for us now?" Rarity gestured to the dressing rooms.

Before Rainbow could leave, Allie stopped her. "Oh, that won't be necessary."

"Pardon?" Rarity asked.

"There's no need. I can already see this dress is to die for."

"Does...does this mean...?"

"It means you're hired!" Allie threw her hands into the air. Rarity hugged Allie tightly and together they started jumping up and down. Rainbow just stood there and watched them, shaking her head slightly. _Girls_.

After an hour of shopping to celebrate, Rarity and Rainbow climbed into the Corvette. Rainbow turned around to see the back seat, which was piled with shopping bags.

"Wow, do you think you got enough clothes?"

"It's going to take a lot more than your sarcasm to take me down, Rainbow Dash," Rarity wiggled in the driver's seat, grinning uncontrollably, "Now, how about some music?"

"Really?" Rainbow was surprised. Rarity never listened to music, claiming it was nothing but noise pollution. When Rarity nodded, Rainbow pulled her phone out of her pocket, "I thought you'd never ask."

_With a thousand lies_

_and a good disguise_

_hit 'em right between the eyes_

_hit 'em right between the eyes_

_when you walk away_

_nothing more to say_

_see the lightening in their eyes_

_see them running for their lives_

(I don't own that song, but I just had to put it in here, because it's, like, the most used reference in every fan fiction ever. You're welcome)

Upon arriving home, four girls crowded them at the door, all anxious to hear the news. Rarity and Rainbow switched on and off telling the story, leading up to the good news. They went out to dinner to celebrate. They ate good food and had good laughs. Rarity let herself have a good time and enjoy herself, something she hadn't done in days. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to be around such good friends.

. . .

She'd come so far. It was quite the adventure. Rarity took a deep breath. This was her destiny. She did a once-over of the rest of _Alexandria's. _All was in order. The mall closed almost an hour ago and it was time to lock up. She walked out the spotless glass doors and locked them behind her. Most of the lights at the mall were turned off and all was quiet.

She made her way to the exit, passing candle shops and T-shirt booths. She was supposed to meet Spike at the front doors at 10 sharp for carpooling. Her clocking heels echoed in the empty mall, but that wasn't the only sound. A few other workers were locking up, too.

She passed by _Spenser's,_ a very punk and tacky store in her opinion, and saw _him. _She never cared much for the black and Gothic clothes with chains that _Spenser's _sold, but she did care for _him_ very much. She didn't even know his name, but he worked there. And he was devastatingly gorgeous. He just got done shutting the door to the store and caught her staring. He flicked his eyebrows up at her and she blushed beet red.

She looked away and walked faster. She pretended to be busy trying to find something in her purse, but she stole glances back at him. He wore the black jeans with chains like the store sold and a baggy T-shirt. His hair color matched his outfit, and his bangs fell in his eyes. His lip was pierced, and Rarity found it oddly attractive.

She made it to the front doors and walked out to her Corvette with Spike. The drive was uneventful, the only thing worth noting was that the convertible's top was down and Rarity's hair blew in the wind. Spike sat in the passenger seat quietly with ear buds in this ears. He slouched low in the seat and put his feet flat on the glove box. At stoplights, Rarity would glance over and catch him staring. He'd blush and look back at his phone, pretending to be busy changing the song, but he'd steal glances back at her.

. . .

Rainbow Dash sat cross-legged in her game chair in her room, reading a large novel. She looked up when she heard two quick taps on her already open door. Standing in the doorway was the Elegant Rarity.

"Hello, Rainbow Dash. May I just say that you're looking exceptionally pretty today? Did you do something new with your hair? Are those new shoes?"

Rainbow interrupted her. "What do you want?"

"Oh, Rainbow. Has it come to the point that I cannot compliment my best friend ever without her thinking I want something?" Rarity put a hand to her chest, sounding deeply hurt.

"Well, you'd better spit it out. They want me in for the five o'clock news, 'best friend ever.'" Rainbow said, glancing down at her watch. (a real one, not one drawn with pencil.)

"Well, now that I think about it, there is one teeny, tiny, thing you could do for me." Rarity said, sitting on the edge of the bed and crossing her legs gingerly. Rainbow glanced back down at her book.

"What is it?"

"Well, you know I've always admired your wardrobe..."

"Spit it out."

"And I was wondering if... I could borrow an outfit. Just for a day, maybe two."

Rainbow Dash closed the book and stared at Rarity. _Processing... "_I don't have anything elegant." She finally said.

"Rainbow, have you come to assume that I must always dress elegantly? I mean, it's not a crime to change one's style once and a while, right?"

"Uh, I guess not. Knock yourself out." she waved a hand towards the closet. _What on Earth would Rarity want with clothes like mine?_

"Oh, thank you, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity jumped up from the bed and rushed over to hug her. Dash sat stiffly in the game chair rather awkwardly with her hands at her sides, not sure how to respond. Rarity went into the closet. Rainbow just shook her head slightly and returned to her book.

Rarity's voice was slightly muffled through the closet door. "Do you think it would be okay if I wore the black shorts with the silver belt?"

"Wonderful." Dash answered, not listening to her at all.

"Wait. I just found a red belt! Would that one be better?"  
"Definitely." Rainbow turned the page.

"Yes. The red belt is best."

"Uh-huh."

"Now, should the scarf match the belt or the shoes?"

"You know what's best."

"Rainbow Dash, are you even listening?"

"Absolutely." (Lies)

"If you're listening, what's 3 times 2?"

"That color always looks great on you."

"Fine," Rarity said after a moment, "I don't want to talk to you anymore if you're not going to listen."

"Fantastic. Wonderful decision."

Rarity walked out of the closet, carrying a pile of clothes and left the room in a huff, "Oh, and Rainbow Dash?" She peeked her head in the doorway, "you're going to be late for work."

"What?" Rainbow slammed her book shut and flew-literally- out of the seat, frantically getting ready.

. . .

The next morning, Spike was cooking waffles for Applejack and Rainbow Dash while the others slept. "I swear, Brian does it on purpose." Rainbow said, putting her head down on the table.

"Does what now?" Applejack asked, pouring syrup on her waffles.

"He makes us go in for the 5 o'clock news on Mondays only since I mentioned I'm not an early riser."

AJ smiled into her mug of coffee. "Well, it would help if you wouldn't stay up all night playing video games."

"Can I not go two minutes without one of your perfect tidbits of self-help advice?" Rainbow quipped.

Applejack just laughed. "If you're not too tired to be sarcastic, then you'll be fine." Rainbow groaned.

Spike didn't contribute to the conversation. He was too absorbed in his own thoughts. Images of Rainbow Dash and Rarity played on a perpetual slide-show in this mind. He crushed _hard core _on each one. He thought of how soft Rainbow was laying on his chest on Halloween. He thought of how soft Rarity was in his arm while presenting their costumes.

They both smelled nice. Rarity usually smelled like vanilla. Very classy. Rainbow always smelled like rain and wind and clouds. He guessed she'd always smelled like that, being a pegasus and all, but he hadn't noticed until recently.

And they were both so beautiful.

Have you ever felt the need to have a favorite of something? You love them both, yet feel disloyal to them both If you don't choose one over another? People may say, "What's wrong with having two favorites?" but you can't explain the need to have a dominant. That's how Spike felt. Rainbow or Rarity? Rarity or Rainbow? It made him want to cry.

Spike came back to earth when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Rarity proceeded to round the corner into the kitchen... wearing Rainbow's clothes.

"Good morning, Spike." Rarity's beautiful curls were gone, replaced by perfectly strait purple locks covering her left eye and falling to her shoulders. She wore a skin-tight black shirt under an over sized black jacket. She had a black mini-skirt layered with red and black stockings and red belt. Rarity wearing a pair of Osiris? It's more likely than you think.

Rainbow burst out laughing and fell of her chair, cackling on the floor. "I-I didn't... think you were serious!" Applejack managed to stay in her chair, but snickered nonetheless.

"Did you loose a bet?" Spike asked, trying to keep a strait face.

"Ladies do not bet, Spike. I just thought a change in style was necessary, that is all." There was a flash of light, and Rarity looked over to see an iPhone peeking over the top of the counter,being held up by a still on the floor Dash.

. . .

_Hurry, Rarity._

_ But don't go too fast. _

_ But he's right there!_

_ You don't want to seem desperate, Rarity._

_ There's no better time than now._

_ Go, go go!_

Rarity left the task of opening the shop to Allie; she had other tasks to attend to. She tried her best to walk calmly towards _Spenser's. _She swung the door open and went inside.

Spike watched Rarityfrom inside _Lids. _She walked up to the desk and started chatting with one of the workers. She tilted her head back and laughed. Spike felt envy sprout from the bottom of his stomach.

During break, Spike sat at the usual table in the food court where he and Rarity usually ate together. But that day, Spike ate alone. He stared out at the multitude of tables in the food court and spotted Rarity with No Name. They were holding hands and Rarity smiled a lot. It hurt to see that. A lot.

. . .

"It's like, 10:10! Where is that self-centered brat?" Spike paced back and forth in front of the doors, occasionally glancing down the empty corridor. Spike was ticked, to say the least. Not just because she was late for carpooling, but for everything else, "Just looking for a change in style. Yeah, right." Finally getting sick of waiting, he walked quickly back towards _Alexandria's. _

If you knew that your heart was going to be broken so badly that it stopped beating after your next action, would you still take that action? I can guarantee that if Spike knew what was around the corner, he would have turned on his heel and march his self right back to the front doors and continue waiting. But there is now way he could have known what was around corner, unless he consulted his magic conch shell or asked the Almighty CheddarandPretzelCombos.

Apparently he left his conch at home, because he rounded the corner. He stopped in his tracks. Rarity was standing outside _Alexandria's _with No Name.

"Mason, I really must get going. Sam's waiting for me." Rarity said, taking former No Name's hand in hers.

"Let him wait." He said. He pulled her in a tight embrace and locked his lips with hers. Rarity started kissing him back. Only then did he turn on his heel and sprint to the front doors. He sat down on a bench, his heart broken in a million pieces. Tears came to his eyes, and he angrily wiped them away, hating himself for it.

Rarity soon came walking down the corridor and Spike ran outside. He was already in the car with the engine idling by the time Rarity came out the doors. She climbed in the Mustang and smiled. She asked him how his day was. Spike ignored her and shoved ear buds in his ears.

Have you ever ticked someone off right before or as they're driving? What did they do? They got a lead foot, didn't they? Well, guess what Spike did? Yeah.

Atlanta's street lights lined the near empty road. The powerful engine of a certain green Mustang could be heard from some distance away. It roared past, slamming on the breaks at red lights.

"Spike! What's gotten into you?!" Rarity pressed herself to the black leather seat. Spike gave no indication of hearing.

Spike pulled into the driveway minutes later and cut the engine. He climbed out, slamming the door shut. Rarity struggled to keep up with him, getting more and more concerned each second.

When Spike got inside, he found Rainbow Dash in the living room watching the Dark Knight with Pinkie. "Hey, Rainbow. Turns out, we've been lied to. She wasn't just looking for a change in style. But I'm sure she'd love to tell you the real reason for using your clothes, wouldn't you, Rarity?" Spike said, addressing Rarity for the first time that evening. With that, Spike walked up the stairs to his bedroom, leaving Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to interrogate Rarity.

Batman could wait. Hitting the "pause" button, Rainbow turned to Rarity. "Do elaborate."

**Sorry, I couldn't come up with a better way to end this chapter. I wrote chapters 12 and 13 at the same time, so that one will probably be uploaded later today or tomorrow. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch Lincoln with the best dad in the world.**

**Edit: Okay, got bored of Lincoln. Writing this chapter made my cry a bit, I won't lie. Poor Spike! Chapter 13 is almost ready (wow, already? Yeah, I know, I can't believe it, either) and *spoilers* there's a lot of SpikeDash in there. I can't wait until it's done, because it's just down right ADORABLE. Thanks for reading, I'm going to go rock out to some Balloon Party and get some writing done. bye! /)**


	14. Chapter 13

** Last week: "It'll be out tomorrow, guys. I promise. Herpa derpa durr. I'm such a liar. Whoops. The last page of this or so took longer than expected. Sorry. Well, here it is now. Sorry to make y'all wait.**

Spike liked Rainbow Dash. There was no denying that. And ever since Rarity started having interests in that guy from Spencer's, which he promised himself not to be angry about, the rainbow hottie became a more and more accepted thought in his mind. But he felt guilty. He couldn't escape the fact that Rainbow wasn't single. No matter how long they'd be in Georgia, she was still Soarin's girl. And it's not like Spike would get her to cheat on him; she was the element of stinkin' loyalty. Typical.

But Spike would take all those thoughts of hopelessness and push them away, lock them on a box where he hoped to forget them, and replace them with happy thoughts. He'd think about something totally different, like how awesome super heroes are. He'd think about what it would be like to be a super hero. Heroes always get the girl. If he was a hero, he would get Rainbow Dash.

And then he'd be back at Rainbow Dash. She had a way of weaseling her way into his thoughts, but he always welcomed her. Spike would think about Rainbow Dash thinking. He had spent so much time watching his crush while she wasn't looking that he could tell what she was thinking about. The bad side to this is he could tell when she was thinking about Soarin. She would be sitting quietly and her eyes would get distant, like she was zoning out.

Of course, she would zone out like this when she was thinking about flying, too. But when she thought about flying, she would suddenly snap out of her dazed state and start getting stir crazy. Suddenly not comfortable where she was sitting, she would cross her legs, then cross them the other way, she'd sit Indian-style, upside down, and she'd lay on the floor helplessly. Finally, she would let out a long sigh and announce that she needed some air.

Thinking about Soarin would be near the complete opposite. Her eyes would zone out all the same, but then she'd sigh contently and stretch out and rest her hands behind her head. She would bite the inside of her mouth, thinking about kissing Soarin.

When Spike was in Equestria, he would play out a thousand scenarios in his mind where he kissed Rarity. When it finally happened when he gave her his fire ruby, the ecstasy was unbelievable. Since converting from purple to rainbow, he started playing out kissing scenarios with Dash instead.

_ He would be up early on a warm morning. All would be quiet. He would be the only one downstairs until a tired Rainbow Dash came down from her room. She would have to go into work early for the 5 AM weather report. And he would make her favorite: French toast. She would want to help, of course, so they'd make breakfast together at 4 in the morning. They would sit down with their big plates stacked with French toast and glasses of orange juice. She would blow bubbles in hers and he would watch her. She'd smile and laugh, and he would laugh too. Then he'd lean in slowly and kiss her lightly on the lips. It would taste like coffee and syrup and powdered sugar and orange juice. He would lean back to see a blushing Rainbow. She smile and look down at her hands folded in her lap. She would gasp at the time and leave hurriedly with reluctance on her face. He would tell her it was alright and that she should go. She would smile again and say that she'd see him later._

_ Spike would be n the small room at the end of the upstairs hallway. Nobody went in that room very often, but he liked it for its big picture window overlooking the big backyard and woods. A lone piano sat in the center of the room with an empty bench, Spike would sit down at it and crack his knuckles and start playing beautiful classical music. In reality, Spike couldn't play piano, but who am I do tell him he can't dream?_

_ Anyway, not long after he started, a curious Dash would walk in the small room, attracted by the beautiful music. Spike would look up and see her, but he wouldn't stop playing. She would lean over the shiny, black grand piano and bob her head to the music, listening quietly like a good girl. The song would end and she would say that it was beautiful. She would ask what it was and Spike would tell her it was called Fur Elise. She would again say it was beautiful and she would ask him to play more. He would play a light and happy song, the Blue Danube, and Rainbow would bob her head to the music, watching Spike's fingers crawl across the ivories. She would be amazed. The song would end and Spike would look up from the piano. Rainbow Dash's face would be right there in front of him. She would give him a mischievous grin and lean further across the piano, closing the distance between them and locking their lips. Rainbow would ask for more songs and Spike would play more for her._

_ It was dark outside and Spike was clearing the table after dinner. He looked out the dining room's glass doors to the bottom story of the deck. He would see a figure sitting an a lawn chair with their back to the house. He wouldn't be able to tell who the figure was but when she stretched her wings out tirelessly, he figured it out. He would walk out on the deck with two mugs of hot cider and sit down next to her and hand her the drink. She would smile appreciatively and take a swig. She would exhale deeply and a cloud of her breath melted into the dark night. He would mention that it was cold out and she would nod in agreement. In an act of chivalry, he would take off his lettered jacket and drape it over her shoulders._

_ They would look into the night sky and marvel at the beautiful stars. She would snuggle her face into his hoodie and he would wrap his arm around her. He wouldn't know how long they'd been sitting there, but at some point he would look down at her. She would be staring into his eyes. Spike would tell her how pretty her eyes were and she would crane her neck to kiss him lightly on the lips. And the stars would shine brighter._

Spike spent all of his spare time fantasizing about his crush, but he never would have guessed how his first kiss with the rainbow tomboy would really play out.

. . .

The loud ringing and heavy breathing started. The scary violins blared and the thudding footsteps inflicted panic. Chase music. The monster was coming. She started running, looking back occasionally to the undead bane gaining on her. She kept running through the castle's ancient hallways. Soon she got to an old wooden door. Having to slow down to open it, the monster nearly got to her. She flung it open, the door creaking loudly, and dashed inside.

She slammed the door in the monsters face. On the other side, she stopped for a second, tying to calm her racing heart.

Big mistake.

The monster smashed its way through the wooden door and she saw its disfigured face with dismantled jaw. The chase continued as she turned and ran.

The castle twisted every which way and she soon got lost. Blind with fear, she ran in angst through random corridors and flung herself around corners. She opened another door and ran right into_ it._

It's long, bloody claws lashed out at her and her vision went red. Finally, she fell to the ground and all went black.

_**You have to carry on.**_

Rainbow ripped off her headphones and tossed them on to the keyboard. She put her head in her hands. _ That game is way too scary. _ She looked back up at the Amnesia start screen on her monitor. _ One more round?_ She then looked at the clock. 3:36 AM. Rainbow yawned and exited out of the game. She really should get to bed. She pushed the swivel chair out from the desk and stretched her arms above her head.

And froze.

She'd heard something.

She knew she had. Rainbow's heart pounded as she looked desperately around the game room for something to defend herself with.

Wii remote? Painful, but not lethal.

Bean bag? She supposed she would suffocate whatever was out there with it. -_-.

DVD case? Again, painful but not deadly.

Computer monitor? Plugged into the wall.

Then her eyes fell upon it. Spike's samurai sword. It rested on top of the TV. Spike had bought it at a pawn shop for 20 bucks, thinking that it would look good in the living room. Twilight had a fit when he came home with it, going on about how dangerous it was. She demanded it was thrown away, but Spike ended up putting it in here. He and Rainbow were the only ones who went in the game room besides the occasional Pinkie Pie, so they were the only ones that knew about it.

Rainbow picked it up. The sheath was red and had a dragon painted on it. (well played, Spike, well played.) She grabbed the black hilt and yanked the sword out. So sharp! *Drools.* Rainbow tucked the sheath into her belt loop and gripped the sword with sweaty palms.

The original plan was to kick open the door with a battle cry and start hacking at anything that moved. But another bump in the night paralyzed her with fear, which made some serious amendments to the plan of attack.

She crept to the door and opened it a crack. She peeked through and was greeted by a dark and empty living room. Upon opening the door wider, Dash discovered the soft glow of light coming from the kitchen. She took a deep breath and stepped towards the light, hugging the wall.

Rainbow Dash carefully peeked around the corner to the kitchen and came upon the world's most strange sight.

Pinkie Pie was sitting on the floor in front of a wide-open freezer and refrigerator. She had an array of foods set out in a semi-circle around her. She was wearing her pajamas and bunny slippers and her hair was matted and parted awkwardly from sleep.

She spread cream cheese and jelly on a pickle with a butter knife, humming to herself. Dash stood there as Pinkie ate a strange variety of foods, like drinking ketchup and dunking entire sticks of butter into pickle juice.

Rainbow must've gagged at some point because Pinkie's head snapped up and she stared at Dash, only just know aware of her presence.

"Dashie?" Pinkie spoke so slowly and eerily that "Dashie?" was more like "Daassh-she?"

Pinkie's eyes were blank and empty and it seemed like she was looking through Dash rather than at her.

"Pinkie? What are you doing?" Rainbow was caught off guard, and quite frankly, was starting to get freaked out.

"Dashie? Pinkie asked again, as if wanting her to verify that she was, in fact, Dashie. She repeated the question twice more, not seeming to realize-let alone care-that Rainbow was holding a sword.

Pinkie soon lost interest and went back to eating a bag of Rarity's Chex with mustard.

"Pinkie, are you feeling alright?" Dash lowered the sword slightly.

Pinkie snapped her head up again, remembering Dash's presence. That stare. It terrified the rainbow tomboy for reasons that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Then she realized with a jolt why Pinkie was acting like this.

She was sleepwalking. (or, sleep-eating, in this case)

Rainbow would have preferred Grunt. She started backing away out of the kitchen with Pinkie's uncomprehending eyes watching her.

Rainbow managed to make it to the doorway before Pinkie decided she wanted in on the fun. She slowly got to her feet and followed. Rainbow turned and ran. She tripped over end tables and ran into couches, desperately trying to escape the most terrifying moment of her life.

She looked back and saw a perfectly expressionless figure coming towards her, and taking its own sweet time. Rainbow took the stairs two at a time; head pounding and hands shaking.

Rainbow opened the door to the first room she saw and threw herself against the other side. It was Applejack's room. It was dark and Rainbow couldn't see much, but she could make out the frame of a big bed and a no longer sleeping figure. Applejack was sitting up in her bed.

"Who is that?"

"H-hey, AJ..." Rainbow leaned against the wall in a super awkward pose, trying to stop her whole body from shaking.

"Rainbow? What the heck are you doing? It's three in the morning!" Applejack turned on a bedside lamp and squinted at her rainbow haired friend.

"You, know... Chillin'." Rainbow picked at her nail polish and nibbled her nails as Applejack stared at her in awkward silence. In Rainbow's head, there was a massive debate.

_Oh my God, just tell her!_

_But you'll sound like an idiot!_

_The problem's not going to go away if you just stand there._

_I'm supposed to be the Fearless Rainbow Dash!_

_Speak, you fool!_

"Git out." Applejack said bluntly after a while.

"But-" Rainbow protested but was interrupted by a pillow to the face, "You know, throwing pillows at things aren't going to solve your problems."

Rainbow was forced to leave when Applejack switched from pillow to heavier objects. Back out in the danger, Rainbow could see a slowly moving Pinkie Pie about halfway up the stairs. Squealing softly, Rainbow dashed to a second door and pulled it closed behind her.

This was Twilight's room. The entire ceiling was covered in glow-in-dark star stickers and bookshelves lined the walls. A big desk sat in the corner littered with papers and books and pencil shavings. A large bed was in the center, holding a sleeping Twilight.

"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said in urgent whisper.

Twilight moaned and sat up and lifted up her sleeping mask with her magic. "Rainbow Dash? Why are you still up Is that Spike's sword? I told him to throw that out weeks ago!"

"Twilight! You have to help me! It's Pinkie Pie, she's-"

"Pinkie Pie went to bed before me, Dash," Twilight interrupted, "She's not awake."

"That's just it! She's. Not. Awake." Dash's voice cracked as it went higher and higher.

Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. She mumbled something about her never getting to have any sleep and her horn lit up. Rainbow found herself engulfed in Twilight's magical aura and she floated out the door. The door slammed in her face and the magical aura was cut off.

Dash pressed herself against the now locked door. "But Twiiiiiiliiiiiight!" Rainbow heard a creaking behind her and she whirled around...right into the face of Pinkie Pie.

"Gah!" Rainbow screamed and made a beeline for her own bedroom, blind with fear and from the darkness. She slammed her own door shut and did something she hadn't done for years. She crawled under her bed and whimpered pathetically.

_ Ring..._

_ Ring..._

_ Ring..._

"Who the heck- it's three in the morning!" Spike reached out in the darkness for his phone.

"Hello?" He asked, not bothering to check the caller ID because it hurt too much to look at the bright screen.

"Spike!" A quivering voice answered.

"Wha- Rainbow?"

"Spike, you gotta help me!" There was a series of mumbles and inaudible whines before Spike interrupted.

"Okay, okay. Calm down. I'll be right over." Spike hung up and crawled of bed. _So tired. _

Stepping out into the hallway, he saw Pinkie Pie standing in front of Rainbow's door. "Excuse me, Pinkie." Spike squeezed past and opened the door. He held it open for Pinkie, but she just stood aimlessly in the doorway, so he shut the door.

Rainbow's room was dark, so using his phone as a flashlight, he made his way over to her lava lamp collection and switched them on. Her room was empty. She wasn't sitting at her desk, she wasn't in her bean bag nor her game chair. Spike looked in the closet with no avail. Finally, he looked under the bed in desperation. He found her shaking like a leaf and grasping his sword like it was her life source.

"What are you doing?" Spike asked. He wiggled under the bed to be next to her.

"Did you see Pinkie out there?" Her voice was quieter than he'd ever heard it.

"Yes. Why?" He decided to play along and whisper, too.

"She's sleepwalking."

"Oh, is that why she was acting strangely?" Rainbow nodded in response.

Spike took a moment to let his mind load. "Are you scared?"

"I'm terrified!" Rainbow gushed, sobbing with no tears. Spike was torn. Laugh, or be scared of a _crying Rainbow Dash. _He gave an awkward one-arm hug, trying to comfort her. She took a deep breath. "You probably think a lot less of me right now. I mean, look at me! I'm in a fetal position under my bed, scared over someone who's not even awake!" She hid her face in the carpet in humiliation. When she spoke again, her words were slightly muffled, "I don't know why, but I've always been scared of sleepwalkers. Kind of a dumb thing to be scared of, I know."

"I.. I didn't know you were afraid of anything." Spike said, still hugging her.

"Everybody's scared of something." Rainbow lifted her face out of the carpet and looked at Spike. His green eyes seemed to glow in the near-dark atmosphere.

He scanned her face and finally said, "I'll be right back." With that, he wiggled out from under the bed and was gone. He opened the door and found Pinkie a little ways down the hallway, laying on her stomach and drawing squiggly lines in the carpet.

"Pinkie." He bent down so he was eye level with her.

Her eyes stared blankly for a moment. "Spike?"

"Yeah, it's Spike," He threw in a smile as he spoke, "you wanna go to bed? You sleepy?"

Pinkie processed the meaning of his words. Slowly, she nodded. "Bed." She confirmed. Pinkie got to her feet and Spike led her to her room. Even asleep, Pinkie somehow knew where her bed was. She plopped down on her stomach and promptly began to snore.

Spike shut the door and made his way back to Rainbow's room, using his phone to light the way. Rainbow was right where he left her. He slid back under the bed and returned to the one arm hug.

"Is she gone?" She asked. When Spike nodded, Rainbow threw herself at him, burying her face in his shoulder, "thank you, thank you!"

_Ohmigawd, _She's so soft! Spike's whole body tingled with her arms around his neck and her face snuggled in his chest. He hugged her back, wrapping his arms around her middle and pulling her close. He closed his eves and breathed in the smell of rain.

And he realized he never really cared much for vanilla.

Rainbow pulled back and stared at Spike. She just loved his eyes.

What is your favorite thing about people? You may have an obsession with hands, like the teacher from Misao, or maybe you spend your days admiring the hair of people around you. You may even be like Spike and compare smells and brands of shampoo. But Rainbow Dash had a thing for eyes. Especially green eyes. She'd fallen in love with Soarin's eyes before she even knew him. She had always bitterly jealous of Applejack's eyes, once even threatening to steal them. And she once asked Fluttershy how she had gotten to be so lucky as to have teal eyes.

She'd never forget the moment when she realized Spike had green eyes. They were a different kind of green that she'd never seen before. They were hard to describe. They had the bright green of grassy hills, mashed in with the dense green of the forests in a collaboration with the light of a lime and the dark of an evergreen pine. All that sprinkled with a neon tint that made his eyes so happy-looking.

Rainbow may resent her intense magenta eyes, but Spike loved them more than anything. He would be perfectly happy just staring at them all night, but, all good things must end. But the end of one good thing leads to another. For example, Rainbow may have broken the staring contest (bad thing) but the reason she did was so she could lean in and kiss Spike on the lips.

Have you ever been so surprised you were at a loss for words?

Yeah. Spike was.

Everything he'd ever waited for, everything he'd ever built himself up to be, everything he'd ever done, was for this one moment.

Rainbow broke away, blushing, and looked at the ground. "I-I'm sorry... I..." Spike sushed her and tilted her head up towards his face. He kissed her again, feeling all the built up envy and anger and sadness and hopelessness pour out of him in that one moment, the world off his shoulders and on his side at last.

**Well, this was the most anticipated chapter for me. I've been waiting to write this for so long and now it's finally out! YAY! I'd been wanting to write Rainbow playing Amnesia for, what? 5 months now? And just that half a page took me **_**days **_**to write. I just wanted it to be perfect. Success on my part. And I really do have an obsession for green eyes and a fear of sleepwalkers in real life, so that was easy enough to relate to. Let me know if I did a good job on the sleep/chase scene, it was kind of hard to write Rainbow scared, it just doesn't happen very often!**

** OMG the reviews for the last chapter cracked me up! Everybody brohoof Kevin, who wrote three reviews in two days asking me to hurry up! /), Kevin, you're awesome! And you ****should get yourself a real account so I can give you my thanks in person (kinda). And then there's the fabulous tomColt. So obsessive of her RariDash. Your review made me laugh; I didn't even think of that as shipping, but leave it to Vanessa to make everything romantic. /)**

** Thanks so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I love you all! And on a completely unrelated note, someone needs to make some fan art of Rainbow in a wedding dress! I'd do it myself, but I can't draw people to save my life. Tell me you made it and I'll favorite it on DeviantART and give you a shout-out in an author's note.**

** Feel free to add in the reviews what you want me to add in this story, I've done a lot of stuff you've requested (except Rainbow break-dancing, I doubt that'll happen). **

** That's all for now. See you soon! ~Combos**


	15. Chapter 14

**Day 364**

Rarity sat down on her red velvet couch with a pad of paper, ready to create. She took a pencil from behind her ear and started drawing a dress. She'd drawn so many dresses before, yet no two were the same. That was the magic of design. Originality.

_Something elegant and simple..._

_ And a few ruffles down the front..._

_ Annnd... A halter top would be best..._

_ Covered in pearls!_

_ A long veil with layers..._

_ And a small tiara at the top._

_ A reasonably short train..._

A buzzing vibration from the end table broke the designer's concentration. The caller ID showed a picture of an ecstatic girl with freckles and an impossibly large smile. Her bouncy hair fell every which way, and one particularly large lock fell into her eyes, covering a portion of her baby blues.

Rarity debated if she should hit _ignore_, but thought better of it. "Hello."

There was a series of rather annoying ghost noises before Pinkie's voice came out of the phone, "Your presence is requested by Madame Pinkie Pie in the Resurrection Room of Doom!"

"Pinkie, darling. As much as I'd love to join in on one of your little games, I cannot. I was in 'the zone' creating a marvelous gown when you called and I must get back to it."

"But-"

"Pinkie, give me the phone." Twilight's voice could be heard from some distance away.

Noo! Wait, Dashie, let go!" There was a loud fumbling as Dash wrestled the phone away from Pinkie Pie.

"Here, Twi. Catch," Rarity felt herself collide with the ground, "good catch." Dash said sarcastically. Rarity gave her phone the half-lidded stare of exasperation until Twilight's voice was heard clearly though it.

"Rarity, just get down here. Pinkie managed to drag the rest of us into her little ritual thing, and we apparently can't start without you."

"But I'm working on a dress, Twilight." Rarity whined.

"We're leaving tomorrow. Why would you make a dress?"

"Just because we'll be going back to Equestria does not mean that people should miss out on my glorious creation that I have positively slaved over for-"

"You know what? I don't want to know. Just come on."

Rarity sighed. "Fine." Moments later, Rarity rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs and came upon a surprising sight. The couch and coffee table had been pushed back, making room for a large blanket to be laid down. Her six friends cat Indian-style in a circle on the blanket.

"What's going on here?" Rarity asked.

Madame Pinkie Pie answered, "The spirits have called upon me to create a trust circle the preform the sacred rituals that friends have been preforming since the dawn of time!" Pinkie waved her arms around madly and the dozens of bangles she wore clanged against each other.

"Pardon?"

"Just go with it." Twilight whispered.

Madame Pinkie gestured to an empty spot between AJ and Twilight, "Please, join our trust circle!" Rarity retrieved a pillow from the couch before gingerly folding her legs under her on the blanket.

Once all was settled, Pinkie nodded with satisfaction. "Join together and close the trust circle!" She led by example by grabbing Fluttershy's hand with one of hers and Spike's with the other. Rarity grabbed one of Twilight's hands and one of AJ's. Pinkie tilted her head up and squinted her eyes shut. She looked genuinely in contact with the spirits.

Rarity looked around the room, wondering if she was the only one who was confused. Fluttershy was staring at Pinkie, looking very worried. Both Applejack's and Twilight's expressions read: _Just go with it. It'll be over soon. _ Everyone's hands were cupped together, except for Rainbow's and Spike's who laced their fingers together. Spike's eyes darted around and continued to land on his hand intertwined with Dash's.

Rarity suppressed a smile. At first, she was so scared at this new item, thinking Spike was just doing this to get back at her for dating Mason. But Spike seemed happy. And even though things were still awkward between the two of them, Spike and Rarity were at peace.

Suddenly Pinkie's eyes snapped open. "The spirits approve of this trust circle. We can continue." Everybody let go of each other's hands. Except two people.

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do. We'll go around the circle telling confessions. It is said that this is the best way to strengthen friendships. And the best part is that this trust circle ensures that anything said here cannot be used against them. Who would like to start off?"

"I will," Twilight said, "my confession is about Halloween. I didn't actually make my own costume." Groans went all around.

"My turn," Rarity raised her hand, "my confession is about Halloween as well. Rainbow, do you remember me being cross that your team won the costume contest and my team didn't?" Rainbow nodded, "well, I did something that I'm not proud of. I was a poor looser and..."

"What did you do?" Rainbow demanded.

"I...may have spit in your orange juice the next morning." Everyone laughed-except Rainbow.

"AJ, your turn." Pinkie said.

"I can't come up with anything. I've lived this year honestly and without regret." Applejack said after thinking a while.

"Okay, you're off the hook. You're the element of honesty, after all," Madame Pinkie said, adjusting her green bandanna she wore in her hair, "Dashie, you're up."

"I haven't done the laundry a single time." She said. Everyone blew up in her face then, going on about all the times they've had to do the laundry. She just grinned sheepishly and held her hands up in defeat.

After all calmed down, Spike spoke. "Twilight, this one's for you. Remember the first night here? When I wanted to ride my Mustang and you wouldn't let me drive? Well, after you went to bed, Rainbow let me ride her bike around."

Twilight looked really angry, but she remained seated.

"Pinkie Pie?" AJ said.

"I'm the one who ate all the cupcakes last week! I'm sorry!"

"Fluttershy, you're the last one. What about you?" Rainbow asked when Pinkie got done crying.

"Rainbow. I'm really sorry. I told Princess Celestia that you brought Tank. . .sorry."

"Wait, you brought Tank?" Twilight asked, "Rainbow, that's just what I said _not _ to do! I didn't know how this kind of travel would effect such a small creature! What if something happened to him? How would you feel if Tank lost a leg?"

"Well, he didn't! He's fine!" Rainbow flew upstairs and was back in an instant, holding Tank, "see? He's fine!" Rainbow sat back down with her tortoise in her lap, stroking his shell.

"Now that round one is over..." Madame Pinkie reached behind her and pulled out a case of beer.

"Wait. What?" Rarity asked, eying the beers.

**Half an hour and 24 beers later. . .**

Fluttershy laid spread-eagle on her back on Madame Pinkie's blanket. She grabbed her can of beer and held it to her lips to find it was empty. With a sad look on her face, she sat the can down. She looked over at Twilight and Applejack, who were attempting to play a thumb war. But they were both so sluggish that it just looked like an awkward fist bump.

Spike and Rainbow Dash lounged with their backs resting against each other's. Their hands were still laced together. "Hey, let me tell you a secret." Spike whispered.

Rainbow Dash rolled her head over on Spike's shoulder so her ear was closer to his mouth. "What's the secret?" Rainbow whispered back.

"The secret is. . ." Spike motioned for her to lean in even closer, "you smell really nice."

Dash smelled the sleeve of her hoodie, "What do I smell like?"

"Like clouds. And rain." Spike grabbed her ponytail and shoved his face into it. Rainbow seemed very accomplished in knowing this piece of information. She smelled like clouds.

"You smell really nice, too. Like Axe." She whispered.

Rarity was sitting on another corner of the blanket. She leaned her back against the fireplace and giggled quietly to herself.

Pinkie Pie sat in the middle of it all, not looking the slightest bit dizzy or drunk even though her own share of beer cans littered the space around her. She looked quite pleased with herself. "Alright, guys. It's time for round two of our trust circle confessions. Now that you're a bit dizzy, this'll get more interesting." The six remaining members of the trust circle made their way back to their places on the blanket.

If you've taken the two and a half seconds to do the math (you're my kind of man) you would have noticed that a case of 24 beers split between seven characters would give them about three beers each. According to NPR and Mythbusters, three beers isn't a lot. Three beers is well under the limit to drive. Therefore; the members of the trust circle are not anywhere near passing out, or getting violent, or anything else that dangerously drunk person would do. (Just thought that was necessary to add).

"Who's going first this time?"

Rarity slowly raised her hand. "You all are aware of Mason. Well, he was the biggest mistake of my life. He was rude and-and careless, and not at all a gentleman. . . I wish I had a better judgment of males. I broke up with him a couple of weeks ago." Rarity got a bit misty-eyed during her confession and her voice broke. Applejack put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Spike felt some kind of bittersweet vengeance swell up inside him. He was glad for Rarity's tears, he was glad that Mason gave her the same pain that himself felt. He grabbed for Rainbow's hand again and squeezed it tightly. She glanced over and gave a quick smile. Spike looked at the ground. Dash didn't have a clue.

"Hey, Dashie," Spike said, "remember when you let me ride your bike after everyone went to bed on the first day?"

Dashie nodded.

"Do you remember the scratch that mysteriously showed up the next day? I may or may not have crashed your bike into a tree." Spike said. Dash looked a little angry, but she eventually shrugged it off.

"My turn!" Twilight said, "Once, Tyler and I. . ." She trailed off and blushed violently. Rarity was the first to get it. She giggled madly and clapped her hands.

"Wait, you what?" Fluttershy blushed, too. She was thinking of _something _but she wasn't sure if she understood correctly. The room soon turned into a fit of giggles as they realized what their Twilight did.

After everything calmed down, Rainbow spoke. "Since everyone's doing Halloween confessions,I guess I'll do one, too. Spike and I left the party early and went home to watch Iron Man. But guess what? When you all came home, I was awake." Everybody laughed and Spike blushed.

They all talked and laughed and told stories late into the night. And Rarity was glad she'd gotten out of her workroom.

**Day 365**

Tyler wheeled the last cart of books over to the biography section. Twilight followed him, dreading the upcoming conversation. Tears welled up in her eyes and Tyler got blurry until Twilight blinked them away. He had started stacking books, unaware of her presence.

"Tyler?"

Tyler turned around and saw his girlfriend. "Hey there. Watch this," Tyler picked up _The Life of __George Washington Carver _from the cart and slid it carefully onto the shelf, "The Carver goes with the C's.' Twilight tried to smile, recalling sweet memories, but ended up getting teary eyed again.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Tyler grabbed Twilight's hands with his own, with deep concern creasing his face.

"I. . .somethings come up." Twilight said, her voice breaking. She'd been dreading this day for months.

"What is it?" He asked. Twilight took a deep breath and started with the well thought out story.

"It's my mother. She has cancer. I have to move in with her. . .J-just to spend some time with her before. . ." Tears were flowing freely from Twilight's eyes now, but not for the reason Tyler thought. And the look of grief and pain on Tyler's face made her cry even harder.

Tyler embraced her in a hug for a long time. "Where does your mother live?"

"Oregon." _Lies. More secrets and lies. That's all I have. My whole life is a lie. Why do I have to do __this? Why is my life so hard? What did I do to deserve this?_

_ "_I-I'm sorry. . .I have to go." Twilight ran out of the library and to her car. She drove off, tears still sliding down her face.

It was a busy day at the amusement park. Pinkie Pie's little booth was especially crowded. But her booth that sold sugar cubes and sugar canes and sundaes and sunbeams and sarsaparilla was empty with no customers. The multitude of jump ropes, skip-its, bouncy balls, yo-yos, Frisbees, and chalk that was outside the booth was left on the ground, forgotten for the moment. A dozen children instead gathered around a single picnic table that sat a crying Pinkie Pie.

A young girl with stubby pigtails put her little hand on Pinkie's shoulder, "Pinkie Pie, don't be sad."

Pinkie Pie looked up, wiping tears from her eyes. "You're right, Candace. I'm sorry. I'm just going to miss you all so much!"

Pinkie soon managed to cheer herself up and start playing again. In her last hours of working at the amusement park, she got to do what made her happiest.

Fluttershy looked around the near empty zoo. Her boss was nowhere to be found. She climbed over the first of two fence layers, being careful to keep an eye out for any other zookeepers. The first layer of fencing was made of plain logs, and was made just for kids to sit on. The second layer, however, was made of thick chain-link. This is what kept the animal from escaping. Fluttershy made it to the second fence and stuck her hand through a small opening.

"Mr. Lion?" She clicked her tongue twice and the large lion came barreling over to her. He licked her hand and Fluttershy pet his mane all over. He pressed himself against the fence and groaned softly with pleasure.

"Oh, I love you too!" Fluttershy pet the lion for a long time, but she soon had to stop because she was so nervous that someone was going to catch her. Slowly, she took her hand out of the chain link fence and took backwards steps. The lion stared at her with big, sad eyes.

"I'm sorry," Fluttershy said, "I have to go. I'll miss you." She wiped a tear from her eye and climbed over the wooden fence again. She looked back one last time to wave sadly at the big lion. His big eyes pleaded with her, but Fluttershy tore away from his stare and started her long walk to the parking lot for the last time.

_If Celestia owns the sun in Equestria, then who owns it on Earth? _Pinkie thought to herself as she set the picnic basket aside and fell back on the blanket. She listened as Applejack's heavy footsteps approached the little campsite.

"Everything's ready. We can go anytime." She said, sitting down on the picnic blanket and grabbing for the basket.

"Are you sure you got _everything? _There's a lot of things I wanted to ring back to show Celestia." Spike said.

"Every last trinket is stored safely in the garage. I still think that putting a spell on the garage was a great idea, Twi." When Twilight didn't answer, Applejack went on, "Now we don't have to worry about limiting the things we want to bring back, because whatever's in that garage is comin' back with us. Though I still think bringing motorized vehicles that will be of no use when you're a pony is unnecessary," AJ said, sending an irritated eye up at a certain pegasus lounging in a cloud.

Twilight still didn't respond, but Applejack barely noticed, nor did Pinkie Pie. The party pony stared up at the low cloud that held Rainbow Dash. "I gotta admit, I'm going to miss this place."

Rainbow sat up in her cloud. "You, too?"

"Yeah," Pinkie kicked off her sandals and wiggled her toes, "I mean, I miss Equestria, but Atlanta's where it's at."

"I'm really going to miss the zoo. Those animals need me."

"I know that feeling, Fluttershy!" Pinkie propped herself on the palms of her hands, "I'm really going to miss all the kids at the amusement park."

"What about you, Twilight? What are you going to miss most?" Pinkie craned her neck, looking for Twilight.

Twilight wasn't sitting on the picnic blanket like all the others. She sat some distance away from everyone else, resting her back against a tree. She hugged her arms and stared at the ground.

"Tyler," she said, "I'm going to miss Tyler."

"Oh, you poor dear." Rarity walked over to Twilight's sulking tree and put a comforting arm on her shoulder.

"I cared about him so much. . .and it hurt to lie to him everyday about who I really am. He doesn't deserve that. And now I have to leave him." A single tear trailed down her face and wiped it away angrily.

Nobody quite knew how to react. Everyone pushed forward their words of encouragement and sympathy and remorse, but nothing cheered her up.

"It's okay, guys," Twilight said finally. She gently pushed Rarity's hand off of her shoulder and stood up, dusting herself off. She turned towards her friends and stared with them with tired eyes and a sad half-smile. "Let's just go home." With that, she picked up her purse, filled with the same treasured belongings that she filled her saddlebags with one long year ago and slung it over her shoulder.

Led by Celestia's star pupil, the seven friends walked into a nearby clearing and assumed circular position.

Twilight was tired of crying. She was tired of all her guilt. She was tired of being tired. Somehow, she hoped, that returning to Equestria; returning to her loved ones, returning to her teacher, returning to her cozy Ponyville library would ease the pain. But she knew, deep down, that nothing would ease her pain. Nothing could calm her resentment.

She was just _tried._

Twilight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. Powerful magic engulfed them and a white-hot spark exploded in the clearing.

Rainbow Dash opened an eye. She still wore her hiking backpack. She still clenched Spike's hand. She hadn't moved an inch. Slowly, she opened her other eye as the rest of her friends came to realize that the spell didn't work.

Twilight opened her tired eyes and her knees went limp. Pinkie Pie luckily caught her before her head hit the hard ground, but before she blacked out, she heard the three voices of Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash overlap in panicked chaos.

"Applebloom?!"

"Sweetie Belle?!"

"Scootaloo?!"

** It's not over yet! Tricked you there for a minute, didn't I?**

**Well, this has probably been the hardest chapter for me to write, and one of my least favorites. The confessions scene was cliché and cheesy and it might seem unnecessary at first, but, I assure you, it's vital to the plot.**

**And I'm super sorry for taking so long on this chapter, and it's not even that long. I had to write it at least three times before getting it right. Plus, there's been a lot of things going on in my personal life, but I'm not going to talk about that crap.**

**But I have some good news! We broke 7000 views! Congrats to all you fabulous bronies out there that made this story so popular! I love all of you! Now let's see if we can break 10K. Tell your friends, tell your grandma, tell everyone about this story! **

**Until next time, I'm still Combos! **


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